A Sense of the Infinite
by Kukui
Summary: Reincarnated as Shimewari Miyuna, she is unable to comprehend the new life she is given. Thrown into the exciting yet dangerous life of a ninja, Miyuna must find ways to save herself from dying again but it proves to be a lot harder than she anticipated, especially when ninjas in this world can perform magic tricks like SHOOTING FIREBALLS OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MOUTH!
1. A New Life As Shimewari Miyuna

**Chapter One – A New Life As Shimewari Miyuna**

The memories of my old life were vague. Like over-stretched noodles, and when you attempt to grab them, they snap and disappear behind a mountain of fog. They were so close, yet never within my grasp. But I knew so clearly, so certain of it that I had another life before this one. A life where my name wasn't Shimewari Miyuna. So what happened? How did I end up here in this strange world?

XXX

I spent my first months at the mercy of my new parents. I always thought that babies had it easy – boy was I wrong about those spoiled, lazy bums. Bottom line: being a baby is boring business. I wake up when I hear my mom shuffling into my nursery, give her a quick slobbery smile, think about my predicament, attempt to gain some speech and movement, fail at doing so, then sleep. And repeat. And repeat. I could only eat if my parents feed me. I could only move if my parents move me. And, I suffered the feeling of a poopy diaper until my parents came in and changed my diaper. Babies have it tough, I'm telling you.

Despite all that, I rarely ever cried, never felt the need to really. The few times I did were when I was dying of hunger or needed a diaper change and they were late. _When_ I did cry, a woman came running into my nursery to answer whatever need I had without fail. I came to recognize her as my mother. And I felt very attached to her. She was beautiful – long, auburn hair, golden sunny eyes, and defined facial features. She fed me always with a bright smile and silly _whoosh_ noises. She hummed to me when I couldn't fall asleep. She played with me and read to me whenever she could.

My father, on the other-hand, had yet to make an impression on me. He was largely absent from my sight, making me believe he was non-existent. It wasn't until months later that I finally discovered, much to my delight, I had a father – a handsome one for the record. Gentle dark eyes matched his long dark locks; he was dreamy. His hair is most often perfectly waved as a result of the messy man-bun he kept during the day. His face was sculpted and framed by his sharply defined eyebrows. And the stubble below his chin makes him seem more intimidating and older than he really is. Did I already mention he's handsome?

On top of all his dreaminess, he was an extremely busy man, disappearing before I wake up in the morning and coming home late after I had already gone to sleep. But sometimes I feel his warm presence looming over my crib and his cool hands smoothing the little wisps of hair on top of my head as I slept. Or him whispering softly as he flutters kisses on my forehead, "Watashi wa subete ga ima daijōbudearu koto o ureshīdesu. (I'm so glad that everything is okay now.)"

I didn't understand his words at the time. As a matter of fact, I couldn't understand any words that were spoken to me at that time. They were jumbled and foreign, and when I attempted to replicate the same sounds on my tongue they felt even stranger. It was frustrating. And if this didn't serve as a constant reminder of the predicament I was in; I didn't know what did. This was the reality I was living in: I would have to go on as Shimewari Miyuna – with the fact that I am actually much older than what my current body is. The fact that I am not Shimewari Miyuna but was someone else before. The fact that I was _bloody_ reincarnated.

It wasn't until I was around two years old that I came to realize the full scale of the predicament I was in. I was reluctant to accept my reincarnation, but it was the truth. This was my reality and nothing was going to change it. I had two loving parents, albeit one of them I rarely see, and I should be thankful I'm still a human and not some animal on a farm about to be killed for meat or something.

But, something was very wrong in this world. And I was about to find out in a few days that I should've wished I was an animal on a farm about to be killed for meat. Because at least then I knew when I would die and it'd be quick. Besides I would be reincarnated again perhaps in a better situation – actually dying in peace would be nice too though.

I first got the hint when my father suddenly appeared in my nursery one night. I mean appeared as in basically teleported with some sort of magic poof. I had woken up to the sounds of him entering the house late one night and he was conversing with my mother in the kitchen. Unable to fall back asleep, I decided to eavesdrop. Though I could only understand snippets of the words in their conversation, I found listening to their voices strangely comforting.

But as soon as I shifted slightly in my bed to hear a bit better, he suddenly appeared with a poof, looming over my crib. I glanced behind him at the still closed door of my nursery, adding more to my bewilderment of how he managed to get in without me noticing. Did he climb through a window?

He gave me what sounded like a scolding for not sleeping to which I was rather annoyed about. I wasn't doing anything other than listening into their conversation (which I couldn't understand most of anyways) and I wasn't making much noise. The fact that he knew I was awake made me more confused, perhaps my parents have a hidden baby monitor somewhere in my room. But still, how had he appeared in my room?

A few days after that incident, both my parents began to leave me behind with a babysitter as they went to work for the day. Nothing too new, I suppose, as it was common even back in my old world. Though instead of receiving the teenage girl I expected as my babysitter, I got three pre-teens and one older male at around 19 years old. That's when it happened. That's when I realized just what kind of world I landed myself into. And it was definitely going to contribute to an early death. Again.

XXX

"You are so adorable!" The girl pre-teen cooed at me to which I glared slightly at in response. As she continued gushing at me, I noticed her two male companions were grouching in the corner of our house. Something about stupid babysitting missions were hissed through their teeth. The older male, who seemed to be the overseer of some sort of the group of pre-teens, was reading one of Asahi's books off the shelf in the living room. Were these pre-teens some group of bad mouthed delinquents and babysitting me is some type of new rehabilitation? Or maybe that tall man was the delinquent and looking after kids was his rehabilitation? He kind of looked like some thug with that long metal stick in between his teeth.

The girl started talking to me again. "What do you want to do, Miyuna-chan?" I shot her an annoyed look which she didn't seem to pick up on.

_Nothing._

"Oh, I know. How about I show you my awesome jutsu outside!" One of the boys in the corner of our living room suddenly jumped to his feet, exclaiming.

He had an overly excited and idiotic face that made me a bit scared, especially when he plucked me off our living room floor in a mad dash out of our apartment complex. I clung to him tightly like a koala in fear of being dropped. I would've glared and screeched at him. But I contained myself. Screaming would get me nowhere other than more fuss from my "babysitters." The black haired boy set me down gently, to my relief, and started exclaiming about this _jutsu_ to me again.

"Watch closely, Miyuna-chan!"

_Alright, alright I'm watching, you brat._

I was honestly expecting some cheap circus trick and so I feigned interest – playing the innocent child.

That's when everything came crashing down on me. He did not perform some cheap circus trick. He spewed water from his mouth like some fountain display and then multiplied himself tenfold. _Shinobi_, they had bellowed before. I had blew everything off before. And now I was going to pay for my ignorance. These pre-teens were not delinquents. They were killers, trained from birth.

What have I gotten my poor self into?


	2. The Key To Surviving Is To Survive

**Chapter Two – The Key To Surviving Is To Stay Alive**

Everything would've been alright if I avoided anything that remotely related to _shinobi_, and I would've been at least confident in the fact that I could survive past my childhood. But as you can tell from my ongoing predicament, I have no luck when it comes to the way I want my life to go. I can't even die right.

I turned three shortly after that epiphany moment of my life – being stunned unconscious after the "cheap circus trick" the boy performed. And only more things happened after that.

XXX

"Very good, Miyuna." Hirana smiled down at me as she handed back my kanji writing.

Despite being likely seven times the age I was currently at in my Miyuna-body, I smiled at the praise that was sent my way. With all the things going around me, it was comforting to know that "my mother" was proud of me. Even if the activities she was giving me were all literally child's play – clapping games, card matching games, tossing small balls into boxes. At least they were helping me with my eye-hand movement and coordination that I had lost from being reborn into a baby-body.

The puzzles and other knowledge my parents threw at me, mostly my mother were standard even back in my old world. I honestly quite enjoyed it; they definitely kept me occupied and free from the boredom I suffered endlessly in my earlier years. Hirana began reading _The Tale of a Gutsy Ninja _to me which gave me a better idea of what _shinobi _were in this world. Much of my ideas about ninjas matched with what was written in the book – a lot of blood and death – though I had to admit the main character, Naruto, was quite heroic. But stupid. Really, really stupid.

"I'm back." An exasperated sigh came from behind me, followed by a soft slam of our front door.

A few weeks had gone by since I last saw my father, a common thing with him so I paid little attention to it. But then I learned much to my distraught just days ago that both my parents were shinobi. To add more to my horrific discovery, Asahi, my greatly absent father, was a newly appointed diplomat who dealt with homeland security. Oh, there's more too. He used to be an ANBU, the elite of all elite _shinobi_. The ANBU was a special assassination squad that worked directly under the leader of the village. Now, the only thing I imagined him doing was slaughtering people or people attempting to kill him or the possibility I would never see him again. Alive, I mean. _Ah, cringe._

"Ah Asahi, welcome back!" Hirana immediately stood up from her seat at the dining table to go greet him.

I stayed at my height-boosted seat and stared owlishly at my exhausted father. My eyes darted all over his body to see if there were any blood or wounds – any signs that he hurt someone or was hurt himself. He had neither which I was relieved about. This had become a habit for me – looking for blood on my parents whenever they came home from their "work."

I was broken from my worried glares when he leaned in to kiss Hirana. I flushed. I'm not being immature like some child getting disgusted with their parents kissing; I am more on the embarrassed side. It felt so wrong for me to stare at them kissing (perhaps influenced by the fact that they were not actually "my parents") like I was awkwardly impeding onto some scene I wasn't supposed to watch. I slapped my hands over my eyes and sunk deeper into my chair to hide from my embarrassment. It seemed my actions didn't go unnoticed as the two quickly broke apart to laugh at my flustered face.

"You've certainly grown cuter since the last time I saw you, haven't you Yuna-chan?" Asahi tried to stifle his chuckles behind his hand when he saw my red face.

"And smarter. I've only started giving her small puzzles, but she is so quick in solving them that I've begun moving her into more difficult ones. Asahi–" Hirana paused for a moment before continuing. "She's a little genius."

I felt myself glow at Hirana's praise.

"Then we can register her at the ninja academy even sooner and she'll become an excellent kunoichi someday."

I didn't exactly know what the ninja academy meant, but the words must mean some sort of school for children to go learn how to become a _professional assassin_. I had walked right into their trap. I should've known. If both my parents were shinobi then they must be raising me as one too. And if I appeared too advanced for my age due to my reincarnation situation then I was getting a free ticket to a life of a _shinobi_ as a _genius_. All the previous glowing pride drained from my face. I blanched; I felt really sick. Suddenly being a genius did not feel so appetizing. I needed to watch my progress a little closer now. I had been an eager sponge to the knowledge that was thrown my way as it was my only source of entertainment and distraction. But it meant I was advancing quickly due to my brain already being mature enough to grasp concepts and memorize them.

I took a deep breath before deciding to get this over and done with. They were so happy and proud of my accomplishments even though I had no idea that they were related to being a _shinobi_. Though they weren't _really_ my parents, they were Miyuna's parents. But that also meant that I would someday have to come to terms with the fact that these were _really _my parents for as long as I was Miyuna which is until I died again most likely. I wanted to make them proud of me. I wanted them to be happy seeing I robbed them of a normal daughter.

But this _shinobi_ business was too much for me to handle. It doesn't matter that I was born to two _shinobi_-parents, being a _shinobi _was the last thing I wanted.

"I-uh really don't have any interests in becoming a _shinobi_."

Hirana and Asahi looked equally surprised and turned to each other to see if the other knew anything behind my decision. Hirana was the first to recover and her words comforted me a lot, "You are an incredibly smart girl but you are still young. So you don't have to decide this now, but when the time comes it is solely your decision and we will respect it."

"But–" Asahi was about to interject but Hirana beat him to it by kicking him in the shin. He yelped in pain but otherwise kept quiet from any further comments. It was then that I felt a heavy cloud above my head move away and I let out a childish laugh.

Never mind wanting to choose to be a cow in a slaughterhouse, I was really lucky to have two loving parents. Seeing their child laugh so freely, the two of them pressed a kiss to a side of my cheek making me giggle even more and bask into their loving embrace.

XXX

The next morning, I was woken up by Asahi shaking me awake. He had given me breakfast and dressed me all before 6am. I suppose it was a nice surprise to see my father home for once to spend time with me. But after his heated stare on me all last night, possibly contemplating what to do with his daughter, I was a bit wary of what he planned for me. Was he going to go against Hirana and throw me into the ninja academy anyways? I really hoped that didn't happen.

"Where are we going?" I meekly questioned as he carried me through town at a rather lethargic pace. He was definitely in no hurry to toss me away to the ninja academy.

"Are you afraid I'm going to toss you into the ninja academy despite what your mother said?"

"Are you?"

"No, of course not!"

He laughed and I blushed in response, hiding away in the nook of his neck. Our conversation stopped for a while and I had the time to look at the village again. The shops were just beginning to set up as the store owners and workers hustled to get everything in place. There was light chatter in the air along with high trills of birds above us. The air smelt like morning dew, a grassy, cool wet smell. It was so peaceful that I almost forgot I now lived in a world of _shinobi_ and I was in the arms of one said _shinobi._

"You know Yuna-chan, your mother and I were born in a time of war. My parents didn't give me a choice; I had to become a ninja. I was sent to the academy and had graduated before I could even fathom what was going on in the world."

_Oh god. It's nice to know that parents here also like to guilt trip their children into doing stuff by giving the "you have it way better now compared to when I was a kid" speech._

"Hey, don't give me that look. I'm trying to give a nice speech here." He scolded, lightly tapping my forehead to tell me to pay attention. I blushed and wondered how he was so perceptive. The answer definitely had to do with the fact that he was a trained _shinobi_. "Now listen. I was sent to the front lines and had seen death and killed enemies before I was even seven. I didn't think about everything I'd seen or the atrocities I committed. All I knew was that I had to follow the orders given to me if I wanted to stay alive."

I felt like I was going to throw up again like last night. Was this really the world I was reincarnated into? Had Hirana and Asahi really went through all of that before they were even a teenager? I missed some of his details while I was thinking about this world again, not that I really needed more gory details because I was already on the verge of throwing up my breakfast. I contemplated telling him to stop but he was so serious that I felt like he would've gone all _shinobi stone-faced _and tell me to suck it up.

"–It took me a while but I finally realized this after I married your mother and had you. Being a _shinobi_ is a terrible profession with all the things you see and the even more horrific actions you must commit. But, all of us become _shinobi_ so that the generations after us can live in a peace time where they don't have to become _shinobi _like us. They can have a choice whether they want to become a _shinobi_ or not. A choice that you now have."

My queasy stomach and my wretched heart had settled down by his words. But were they enough to convince me to become a ninja so that I may protect the generations after me? _No._ There was still a barrier that would keep me from becoming a _shinobi_ – to kill another when the time came – one that I vowed would never break.


	3. Dealing With The Uchiha

**Chapter Three – Dealing With The Uchiha**

Everything fell back into the mundane pace of my life I was used to. Exactly how it was before Asahi gave me his too-gory guilt-trip speech about how my life is better than his because everyone in the generation before me worked super hard for me to have this peaceful life. Only, I was not very peaceful. I was still stuck with these annoying pre-teens and their lazy-assed sensei (who gave himself a free invitation to access all of Asahi's books in the living room). Hirana still carried on with her duties at the hospital. She had explained once to me that her job entailed overseeing doctors and nurses under her, a job she assumed was very safe. And, Asahi continued to be sent away for periods of time (though they were getting shorter and shorter), and I was still stuck worried for days, pleading to the skies that he was still alive. Well really, I just wanted both Hirana and Asahi to survive their _shinobi_ lifestyle and die naturally of old age – something that was remotely "normal".

The only significant change was, after Asahi had come back from his latest mission, getting surprised with the fact that I was going to be an older sister. I was a bit iffy on the pregnancy. Asahi was overjoyed and so was Hirana. I tried being super excited and happy about getting a new sibling (like a normal child), but secretly I was worried for the little bean inside Hirana's belly. He or she would be born into a world that trained children to be _shinobi_. A world where an enemy may kill you the moment you step out of the village's gates. Or they may infiltrate and kill you in your sleep – though Asahi assured me once it was highly unlikely because Konoha has the _best shinobi and defense_. But then again he was in charge of homeland security, so I may have offended him a bit when I questioned the village's security.

The exchange between my parents when Hirana announced the news was super adorable though. She had cooked all of her husband's favorites that night – grilled squid and fried rice cakes – which were also mine so I didn't have any objections. After dinner while Asahi was putting away dishes, she casually dropped a slip of paper beside him while he was working. Suspiciously, he had asked what she was doing hovering over him and she had replied in a sing-song voice "Oh nothing." He then shot me a look for help but I only shrugged, equally confused. When he resumed putting away the dishes, he noticed the slip of paper beside him. In curiosity, he of course picked it up to read it before deeming it as trash. It took a while but when he realized it held the contents of Hirana's pregnancy he instantly whipped around to lift his wife up in the air by her waist.

"Careful the baby!" Hirana blushed as she warned him.

Asahi paled. "Oh right, sorry!" He immediately set her back on her feet gently.

The two of them embraced like any couple and that was when it got awkward for me because they started making out quite heatedly.

"Ahem," I coughed to get their attention before it got too far.

I mentally smirked at their flushed faces while I tried maintaining an innocent one physically. Not entirely sure I succeeded, though. I was sure my face was equally as red as theirs.

Asahi's eyes glinted at me. "Jealous Miyuna?"

Spluttering, I quickly responded with an offended no.

He untangled his arms from Hirana to step closer to me. "There's no need to get jealous, you're still daddy's favorite."

I looked away once more in embarrassment. I didn't know why I continued to try to convince him otherwise. It was honestly making my situation worse. "That's not – I'm not jealous!"

Asahi laughed. "Sure." His word dripping with joking disbelief.

XXX

"I think Hirana-san and Asahi-san should name their daughter Narumi, seeds of beauty." The same 12 year old girl from last time suggested to her other two teammates. I found out that her name was Tenka, not that I really cared for her name. I actually had learned all of their names from Asahi. The three 12 year olds (Tenka, Wakaro, Ren) sat in our living room with Asahi's books spread out all around us. Their sensei, Genma, stood in the corner of the room with a book of scenery poems in his hands. I was rather annoyed that they weren't taking much care of the books – leaving them faced down with the pages creased – but Asahi had given them permission to use the books just this morning, before he left me pouting in their care. At least they promised Asahi to put away the books when they're done. I'm hoping they kept that promise or else I would be giving them a good scolding. I bet that would be a sight to see – a four year old scolding three 12 year olds to clean up their mess.

"How do you know that it will be a girl?" Wakaro complained.

"I just know. It's called a woman's intuition." Tenka shot back.

"You're not even a woman yet!" Wakaro teased.

_That was the wrong thing to say._

Expectedly, they both burst out in a verbal war. I shied away from them into the corner where Genma stood. Ren and Genma paid no mind to their squabbling, not even making an effort to tell them to be quiet. Me on the other hand, I had to get away from them.

"Hm, what is it Miyuna-chan?" Genma looked down at me.

"I'm going to go pee."

"Alright then."

With that, I tiptoed out our front door and broke into a sprint away from our apartment building. It was exhilarating. I had been a "good girl" for Hirana and Asahi for the past four years, meaning I did everything that they asked without much whining. So, I decided that I deserved to enjoy a bit of freedom. Besides, if children only a few months older than me were allowed to attend the ninja academy and learn to become _shinobi_ then I should be allowed to explore the village by myself.

_Oof_. I guess I was a little too excited with my newfound freedom.

I winced at the receding pain in my bum. "Are you alright?" Still dazed from the harsh impact, I blearily responded with an apology instead of the answer to her question.

"It's quite alright, but be careful now." Her voice was very gentle, similar to Hirana's. She was pretty too. Her dark, ebony hair had this navy glow under the sunlight and her eyes were extremely dark but curved with kindness and a bit of worry. She appeared to be around Hirana's age too. Perhaps all mothers in this world were pretty.

"Ah, your groceries! I'm so sorry, ma'am." I pointed to her brown paper bags that were spilling out groceries onto the ground.

"Oh don't worry about them, they're just vegetables. They can take a few hits." She chuckled.

I offered to carry some of them back to her house in payment for running into her. At first, she refused, commenting on how cute and polite I was. Her reason was that she lived very far away. I thought it was strange that she lost some of the happiness in her eyes and smile when she mentioned the fact that she lived far. I shrugged it off quickly when the look disappeared. It could've been because she was simply upset with the fact that she lived far from the markets. Eventually I got her to agree when I told her I'm used to helping Hirana carry groceries all the time now that she's pregnant.

"How fun, I bet you'll be a great older sister." She smiled down at me.

We talked about miscellaneous stuff which made our trek to her house entertaining. I learned she had two sons herself, Itachi and Sasuke. Itachi was eight and Sasuke was the same age as me. The walk to her house was much longer than I had expected. In fact, her house was in an enclosed private territory reserved for the _Uchiha _clan close to the outskirts of the village on the west side. There were no tall gates or walls that separated the village and the "outside" in this part of town. Asahi explained that there was only a dense forest there that protected the village. It had done well in keeping enemies away because of the booby traps. The denseness of the trees also prevented an invasion, often strangers to the forest got lost or confused. Asahi had assured me that I was perfectly safe within the village. He was in charge of homeland security so I suppose I should trust him. Also, I constantly saw people flying through rooftops in the village brandishing a shiny headband with a leaf symbol embossed in the middle of the metal plate. I had learned just recently that this meant they were full-fledged and capable _shinobi_. With this many ninjas running around I reckon I was pretty safe.

The Uchiha territory was like another village inside of a village. There were cute little tea and weaponry stores. It seemed kind of fun. The streets were decorated with red and white fans; I thought it was almost like a secret festival just beginning to emerge for an all-night party.

It was near her house, or should I say her mansion, when I met her two sons – Itachi and Sasuke. Sasuke came running out to hug his mother around her legs while Itachi went to grab her grocery bags before she accidentally dropped them due to Sasuke tackling her.

"Itachi-kun will take care of the groceries. Thank you for helping me with the groceries. Would you like to come in and have some juice and play with Sasuke-kun?"

"It was no problem, Uchiha-san. I'm sorry for running into you. I would love to stay but I kind of ran away from my babysitters and I should get back to them before they freak out too much." I shyly admitted as I handed my bag of groceries to Itachi's awaiting arms. Our eyes met briefly. They were kind of unnerving to look into unlike his mother's kind ones. They reminded me of a dead fish's. We broke apart at the same time and I was left staring stiffly at Itachi's back as he went into their mansion with Sasuke toddling after his big brother.

She laughed and beckoned for Itachi to come towards us when he came outside again. "Itachi-kun, why don't you take Miyuna-chan back to her house?" I was about to politely decline but then realized I did not remember the way back to my house. Itachi gave his mother a silent nod and stuck out a hand for me to take.

I took it shyly. His gesture took me off guard. He seemed like the classic _stone-faced shinobi_ I was acquainted with like the apathetic Genma or the ones that sometimes approached Asahi during our walks. The kind of _shinobi_ that seemed to have no caring bone in their bodies.

"How old are you?" He questioned, starting the conversation out first.

"I just turned four."

"You're the same age as Sasuke, but you're incredibly well spoken for someone so young. Sasuke still lisps through some of his words and can only form simple sentences."

I noticed how his tone shifted when the topic changed to Sasuke, his younger brother. I giggled lightly; I had been terrified of this guy but it turns out he was a big softie when it came to Sasuke. It was honestly super cute.

"Care to share what you're giggling about?"

"I can tell you really love your younger brother."

"How so?"

"You changed the tone of your voice when you started talking about Sasuke. You sounded really happy."

"You are very perceptive. Are you going to enroll in the ninja academy this spring?"

I groaned a bit at the topic. It was a fair question, but I hadn't thought about that topic in months.

"Hm? What's wrong?"

"Well, I don't have any desires to become a ninja."

"Why not?"

I had an answer but I did not feel like telling him, or rather I did not feel enough trust to tell him. He was certainly a _shinobi_ himself. Would he laugh at my response? Or maybe he's one of those naïve people who continue to attempt to convince me that the life of a _shinobi_ is full of "glories and adventure," as if they were purposely dodging the blood and other gory violence or they're just stupidly ignorant.

"Sorry, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I didn't mean to pry. I was only curious. I sometimes wonder what it means to be a ninja and then I find myself questioning why I want to be a ninja myself. The only answer I come up with is because I was born into the Uchiha clan and we have a certain reputation in the village as promising _shinobi_."

"Well perhaps underneath everything, you know you want to be a ninja because you want to make sure Sasuke has a bright and peaceful future."

He paused, forcing me to stop as well. I panicked a bit. Maybe sharing my inner thoughts was not a good idea after all. I realized a few weeks ago, coming off as distantly-advanced for my age apparently really frightened people. Had I frightened Itachi? Not that I took him as someone to get easily frightened. He was truly stone-cold. God, I really had to reign in my words and think carefully about how I old I seemed.

"I guess so. That's a very good reason. Most _shinobi_ must understand that their job connects tightly to the futures of later generations. But many–" he trailed off as if to gather the direction of his sentence. "I've known many who kill because they like it."

It was a chilling sentence, especially with his monotone. I knew more or less that there must be some _shinobi_ out there who walked down the path of a ninja for dishonorable reasons. These thought really frightened me – people who kill without remorse, someone who takes lives so lightly.

"That's what I'm afraid of." I murmured as I stared at the ground.

"It's something that every _shinobi_ should be afraid of, but most aren't." Itachi responded.

I wasn't sure if he was speaking about death or killing, but the two subjects were equally morbid in the context of his sentence.

"Miyuna Shimewari, where have you been, young lady? Just because you're four years old now doesn't mean you can go running around the village by yourself without telling someone first." Asahi appeared in front of Itachi and I in a poof, something that I was slowly getting used to. But nonetheless, it scared the crap out of me still especially since Itachi and I were having a rather dark conversation. Mr. Dead Fish Eyes remained stoic however.

There was a moment of awkward silence when Asahi met eyes with Itachi, perhaps he was getting the dead fish vibe too from his eyes. "Thank you for bringing her back, Itachi-kun. Sorry for any inconvenience she may have caused." I blinked in surprised at the fact that they knew each other. They were both _shinobi_ so it shouldn't be a huge surprise, but their cold exchange was a bit worrisome. Bad blood definitely ran between them. "She helped my mother with groceries, and I had the pleasure of conversing with your daughter, Shimewari-san. So it was no problem at all. Good night." _Poof_. His hand suddenly disappeared from mine, making me flinch and blink confusingly at the space Itachi once stood. Is this a normal thing for _shinobi_, to disappear fancily in puffs of smoke?

"You are in a lot of trouble Missy; you get back to our house right now and apologize to Genma's team. They've been looking all day for you after your disappearing act."

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Don't say sorry to me, say sorry to them. Why did you run away anyways?"

"They were annoying," I bluntly said.

Asahi gives me a sign before pushing me inside our apartment where Genma and his team were waiting. "Oh and one more thing, I want you to stay away from the Uchiha clan."

"Why?"

"Nothing you should really worry yourself about. They just don't particularly like our family, that's all. They must not have really known who you were, otherwise they would not have treated you so kindly."

I was in bit of shock in hearing Asahi's words. They had been so kind to me because they didn't know who I really was?


	4. Asahi

**Chapter Three and One Half - Asahi**

It seemed since I transferred out of the ANBU to work in the newly-organized division, Homeland Security, things were getting even busier. Though the war had ended years ago, it was an uneasy peace that swept through the Fire Country. Everything had returned to some normality in Konoha, but something unsettled me still. It was like a heavy cloud was looming overhead, threatening to unleash all its rain and lightning for a storm of the century.

Perhaps I was too worried because Hirana's pregnant belly had reached maximum capacity and she was literally about to burst open any moment with our second child. Despite my concern, she still worked at the hospital. "The hospital is the safest place I could be if anything happened," was what she said to me. I honestly really couldn't dispute her on that.

XXX

I jolted awake, finding our house strangely quiet. Like something was misplaced from my usual routine. Then I realized, the alarm clock I had set last night was across the room in pitiful pieces. Hirana was still sleeping soundly beside me and a part of me wondered how she was able to sleep through the smashing of a clock into our wall. I sighed helplessly and dismissed the thought onto her pregnancy.

"Tou-chan?" Just as I dragged my sore ass out of bed, I heard a small voice. I snapped my head towards our bedroom door.

There stood my almost-five-year-old daughter who was, when I thought about it, really the one causing all the stress in my life right now as she was the one who plagued my thoughts constantly. She excelled in many areas, especially perception, beyond her age levels and perhaps even beyond a genin. At times, it was hard to even for me to keep up with her, and I considered myself a healthy, capable active-duty _shinobi_. I was proud of her, and undoubtedly I cherished her. But she was the farthest as can be from anything considered a "normal child." She had such watchful eyes and she was careful in every action she took. She could read Hirana and I like a book at any given moment, even times when I attempted to hide things from her. Somehow, she always knew things were off. The same went for me too, however. She was perceptive but she wasn't good at hiding herself, especially her motives.

Ever since that day when Hirana had called our daughter a genius, it was obvious Miyuna was holding back. Her studies regressed. She would take more time on her writings or stop to ask what words were in books even though she already knew the meaning of them. I decided not to confront her about it.

She was a cute girl and I knew she wanted the best for us. When I came home from missions, she'd tug me off to bed and tell me to rest. Even times when I came home from bad days at work, she always knew something was wrong no matter how much I tried to hide everything. She'd whisper simple comforting words to me like, "You did your best, Tou-chan."

I had known she was different from the moment our eyes met for the first time. Unquestionably they were Hirana's, two soft glowing caramel orbs. They were stunningly breathtaking (at least to me as they were the exact copy of Hirana's, the love of my life). But, there was something besides the glow in her eyes. Something that lurked deep beneath the surface that reflected an unknown fear yet some kind of wisdom too. What sort of knowledge could a four year old hold?

It wasn't just her eyes that were strange. Miyuna had been a still-born. The doctors deduced it was sometime during the Nine–Tailed Fox attack when we lost Miyuna. Perhaps while Hirana was fleeing to the safety shelter, her stomach was hit with a blow that broke the flow of nutrients and oxygen to the baby. And by some mysterious miracle, Miyuna revived on her own just as the doctors carried her cold body away. We were relieved and thankful, but it left a wonder in the back of my mind – would I ever figure out the mysterious miracle here?

"Tou-chan? Are you okay?" Her voice came again. It had such unwavering coolness that it was as if she was reading a statement rather than asking a question. Or that she didn't actually care for her own father's wellbeing. I twitched; I had forgotten she was standing in the doorway.

"I thought someone was trying to break in." She started again with that whispery, creepy monotone of hers. Was this girl actually my daughter? I couldn't exactly remember when she developed this emotionless personality. All I could remember was coming back after a short mission and discovering a change in her. I asked Hirana about it but she only shrugged her shoulders. Was it those genin I sent to babysit her? No, if anything it was Miyuna who was terrorizing them from the stories I heard from Genma. Was she bullied by the neighborhood kids? Did she have friends? She seemed pretty friendly with Itachi-kun, had they become friends? She had adamantly complained at the dinner table about my new rule: stay away from the Uchiha clan.

The relationship between her and Itachi-kun seemed to have been genuine, and I may have just shattered her heart when I broke their friendship. That night was possibly the first time I had to scold her and the first time I got some childish temper from her. It was one of those rare times I thought she was actually going to burst out crying like any normal toddler of her age. I wished she did. It would've calmed me at the fact that she was somewhat normal. A stab of guilt pierced my chest. I couldn't think like that.

Of course, I broke the friendship between Itachi and her for a reason. And of course, Hirana and I frequently took Miyuna out to interact with the children in park. It became obvious to us that Miyuna had trouble making friends her age as she often became frustrated with them. They had been playing "Ninja" once, a simple game of hide and seek with one person as the "ANBU hunter" and the rest as "rouge ninjas". Good to know that game hadn't changed when I was younger.

When the young boy, playing the ANBU hunter, forgot how to count, Miyuna heatedly yelled from her hiding spot, "FIFTY COMES AFTER FORTY-NINE, STUPID!" I had burst out laughing at her comment. Hirana hadn't agreed with me though; she slapped my arm and shot me a "how could you" look. Upon Hirana's urging, I lightly scolded our daughter to "play nice" with the other kids. Miyuna disgruntledly went back to play and I was left wondering where her temper had come from.

Speaking of the topic _ninja_, it has become a sensitivity in our family recently. Especially to Miyuna. It came as a surprise to me when she declared her absent intentions of becoming a _shinobi_. I've slowly came to accepting her decision. It was a luxury she could afford, one we could afford too. But how had Miyuna become so knowledgeable about _shinobi_ lifestyle to become so terrified of the profession? Surely the story of _Naruto_ hadn't been too terrifying of a story. I had thought _Naruto _was quite heroic. Despite her best efforts, both Hirana and I were well aware of the fear that immobilized her whenever we so much as push her in the direction of becoming a _shinobi._

We couldn't figure our own daughter out. Were new parents struggling just as we were? It was when I gave my "guilt-trip" speech on our walk together that I finally figured it out, well partially. I thought the speech would convince her, but it seemed to have terrified her more instead. Not to mention the groan I caught her making when I started the speech as if she already knew exactly what was coming her way. What she was afraid of wasn't death but rather taking someone else's life – something very few children realize they must do in order to truly become a full-fledged ninja. By the time they realized it, they would have already committed the act.

"Don't you have work?" I was pulled from my thoughts. How long had I been sitting there deep in thought?

"Are you trying to get me to leave that badly?" I decided to tease her, maybe she'll give me a reaction other than her current stoic one. I smiled to myself, satisfied that her cheeks flushed pink. She was as shy as she always was around me. That much hadn't changed. I had thought she was giving me the cold shoulder and I was relieved to find that was not the case. She was just sad over my breakup between Itachi and her I realized. Perhaps I should just let her be friends with whoever she chooses. She was perceptive; I trust that she could make good judgements of people. "I'm just teasing you, Yuna-chan. Why are you up so early?"

"I heard a crash and it woke me up."

I sheepishly chuckled. Somehow I managed to have woken up my daughter in the room over and not my wife. "Sorry Yuna-chan, why don't you go back to sleep? It's early still."

"I'm not tired anymore. Besides, it's almost ten o'clock."

_Ten?_ I scrambled out of bed and dived towards my wardrobe. I threw on my clothes within a minute. By the time I finished getting dressed, Miyuna had invited herself into the bedroom and Hirana was starting to stir from all the noise.

"Be good today Miyuna and tell your mother I'm sorry for waking her up." I patted her on the head before making the hand signs for a Body Flicker Jutsu.

XXX

The morning was just the start of my terrible day. I arrived to my daily debriefing with the Hokage more than two hours late. He was kind enough to let me slide, though it was only because I weaved together a lie – I was struggling to leave this morning because of Miyuna. It wasn't entirely a lie; it was true but not in the sense the Hokage thought so. I kind of felt bad for pushing the blame onto Miyuna when it was my own fault, but no harm would come to her whereas I would've gotten a sure earful.

When I was dismissed from the Hokage's office, I rushed over to the intelligence building. There, I was teased by my colleagues about staying up late doing special _things_ with my wife. To which I responded with a red face, "She's pregnant!" But they still smirked at me and nudged me suggestively in the side. I quickly escaped them by burying my face into a mountain of paperwork. Really, not a good day.

XXX

The following weeks went by slowly, but before I knew it spring had come and it was time for Miyuna to enter civilian school. In the end, neither Hirana nor I could convince our daughter to become a ninja. We both, for sure, did not want to throw our poor daughter in a life of dangerous missions and death. However, even in peacetime, there was the risk of the village getting attacked by outside enemies and we did not want Miyuna to be completely helpless if neither of us were around to help. What's more, Miyuna was born as a _shinobi_ meaning she had much more chakra than any civilian kid which could potentially be dangerous as it naturally enhances her strength and speed. But thinking again, the idea of us wanting her to become a _shinobi _was only influenced by the fact that Hirana and I were both _shinobi _ourselves and we honestly didn't know anything of life outside of our profession.

Regardless of our thoughts and desires, we had to respect Miyuna's wishes. She was a brilliantly bright child and she was fully capable of making her own well-thought decisions.

But boy was she a handful. I loved her all the same though.


	5. Surprise!

**Chapter Four – Surprise!**

I think I deserved a pat on the back or a gold star or at least some type of award for surviving this far. I've completely avoided becoming a _shinobi_. I hadn't dealt with anything dangerously related to _shinobi_ since the talk I had with Asahi.

Passing my fourth birthday a few months back and nearing my fifth, I was now old enough to attend school. Not the ninja academy. _Normal _school as in the civilian school. Nope, nothing dangerous here just boring old math and reading. The occasional geography and history lessons interested me greatly as they were foreign to me, but even then the teachers did not teach us very much about it. "There's no need for civilians like us to be concerned about ninja business" one of the teachers had stated briefly. And I wasn't even bothered by it. I was actually relieved. Finally, the "normal" life.

Hirana had stopped going to work now, finally taking a much-needed break in order to take care of herself and my soon-to-arrive baby brothers. Yep, I wasn't going to have one baby brother but two! TWINS! Hirana was having twins. Surprise! Haha. Could you catch my sarcasm here? Again, my parents were overjoyed while I was stuck worrying about the _two beans'_ arrival into this world. Was I the only one worried?

Asahi still had to work despite Hirana's pregnancy, but it seemed he finally settled down and worked domestically in a building next to the Hokage's, opting to send out other _shinobi_ in his place for missions. I wasn't exactly sure if I was supposed to be thrilled or worried. I mean _he_ was safe but now someone else wasn't and that made me feel guilty. Someone else was out there doing difficult and dangerous missions because _I_ didn't want my father out there.

"Miyuna-chan," I jumped when I heard my name being called.

School had finished for the day a few hours ago, and I was getting used to having either Hirana or my usual genin squad pick me up. But for the past few hours, no one had turned up. I contemplated walking home myself since I knew the way but I didn't want to miss Hirana if she came by. If I missed her, she would be worried over whether or not I walked home by myself or I was kidnapped. Kidnapping wasn't a high case in the village but you never know with all the skilled _shinobi_ running around.

Asahi had been working overtime recently due to a kidnapping actually. I think it was a girl around my age from the Hyuuga clan. We had visitors from the Lightning Country and they had taken the chance to snatch her up to steal the secrets of the Hyuuga clan. Apparently, the Hyuuga clan had this secret jutsu that only they could perform. The ended up saving her but I heard someone had to suffer for it in order to avoid a war between the countries.

Yep, definitely don't want to be walking around by myself anytime soon even though I have nothing to offer if anyone kidnapped me. In the end, I decided to stay put on the swing I was on. I didn't want Hirana to worry. As for my genin team, I couldn't care less about them. They were ninjas after all, not some pregnant lady. They could afford to run around worried.

"Yes, sensei?" I peeked up from my poetry book to find my homeroom teacher approaching my spot on the swing set.

"I just received news that both your parents are in the hospital–"

I panicked at her words. Parents. Hospital. Why were they at the hospital? Did they get ambushed by some enemy ninja inside the village? Were they hurt? _What if they're dead?_

I ignored the screams from my sensei to come back, continuing to bolt out into the streets towards the Konoha Hospital.

"HIRANA! ASAHI!" I screamed at the top of my lungs when I burst into the lobby.

The entire room shot me dirty looks.

Asahi scolded from across the room. "Shhhhh! Miyuna Shimewari, this is a hospital! And why are you calling us by our first names?"

I sighed in relief seeing Asahi push Hirana in a wheelchair while she held a bundle in each arm. In a panic, I had forgotten the fact that she was pregnant and her due date was around this time. I giggled nervously. Obviously, I hadn't meant to, but since I was in a panic I unintentionally blurt their names out instead of replacing them with Tou-chan and Kaa-chan like usual. Even after four years, I was still bothered when referring to them as my parents so I kept calling them Hirana and Asahi in my head.

"Sorry, slip of the tongue."

Asahi gave me an incredulous look. "Forget it, just come over and see your new baby brothers."

The look Hirana gave me was extremely weary but overjoyed all the while. Her complexion was paler than usual and some remnant of sweat was still dripping down her face. Pushing out two babies did that to people, I guessed. "Tobari and Jomei, meet your big sister, Miyuna." She cooed to the sleeping bundles as she tilted them lower so I could see them with my shorter height.

I scrutinized the two babies. They were identical, which I thought was kind of fun. They would never be alone because they would always have each other. And, I could literally imagine them growing up to be little devils, tricking people into playing "guess which twin I am." They had matching tufts of brown wispy hair, similar to Asahi's. Their eyes were closed, signifying that they were still somehow asleep despite my earlier outburst. I guess I would find out their eye colors later when they were awake.

XXX

One week seemed to fly by like nothing. I barely recalled going to school, probably because my head was and is still completely fried from the lack of sleep due to Tobari and Jomei's constant crying during the night. I could tell Hirana and Asahi were beyond exhausted dealing with the two so I did my best not to complain. But having my bedroom made into a hodge-podge nursery for my brothers was seriously making me a very grouchy person. At times in the middle of the night, I crawled out of bed to glare at the two in hopes they would shut up at the sight of me glaring down at them. But after the first few times, I realized glaring at them only made them cry louder. Towards the end of the week, I attempted to escape to my parents' room only to be escorted back with a tired comment from Asahi, "You're too old to sleep with us." In translation, "We're exhausted and we don't want you in our bed."

"Tobari, the curtain that comes down on daytime, telling that nighttime is approaching. Jomei, the one that spreads light like the morning sun. How poetic." Kurenai giggled in admiration as she gently patted a sleeping Jomei in her arms while her friend and my other babysitter, Asuma, handled Tobari.

Much to my annoyance, both Hirana and Asahi went out for some alone time without having their three children in tow. I wasn't exactly upset that Hirana and Asahi were out on a much needed date night. They deserved it, but I was upset that they left me with these two lovebirds. I had wished for a _normal_ girl-teen babysitter who stereotypically has her boyfriend over to do lovey-dovey stuff and now that wish had come true. I think I prefer those three pre-teens and Genma-san over these two hands down. It was so obvious they liked each other but they were both too scared to say anything to each other. It was so frustrating! I was tempted to just yell at them but that would be an awkward situation on so many accounts so I just left them in our living room while I hid away in my bedroom. It was a good time to catch up on some much needed sleep even though it was only 6pm. If I could get three hours of solid sleep before actual bedtime I would be eternally grateful.

"Miyuna-chan, are you in here?" Kurenai slipped into the bedroom and turned on the lights, causing me to hiss at the bright lights instinctively and burrow myself further into my blankets. "Sorry, were you sleeping?"

"Yes," I bit out a comment followed with a glare in annoyance.

"Someone is grouchy," Asuma scoffed as he slipped past Kurenai to put down his twin in one of the two cribs.

I groaned in response and stuffed my head under the pillow. "Do you want some dinner?" Kurenai offered.

"No," I nearly growled out my answer from under my pillow. "I just want to sleep."

"Well you're going to be hungry in the middle of the night so you might want to come out and eat something. Your mom made you grilled octopus, it's your favorite isn't it?" She tried to coax me out, "You can go back to sleep afterwards."

"Fine," I snapped as I threw my pillow and my blankets off me rather dramatically.

After I ate my dinner which was re-heated nicely in the frying pan by Kurenai, I was finally allowed to return to bed. But that didn't last long because the twins decided they didn't want to sleep anymore and started crying. As Kurenai and Asuma began to work on quieting them down, I stomped out of the room.

"Miyuna, where are you going?"

"To sleep." I responded to Asuma.

"So much attitude for a four year old," I heard Asuma mutter under his breath as I left the room.

I was happy that neither Kurenai nor Asuma questioned me further. I entered my parents' bedroom down the hall and shut the door behind me. Their room was technically off-limits to me when I'm not with at least one of my parents. It was understandable considering all the _ninja_ stuff lying around, not exactly child-proof. All I wanted was to sleep. I wasn't going to mess with anything anyways.

I don't know how long had passed before I was woken up by a very familiar voice. "What's this, who is sleeping in my bed?" Asahi teased as he pulled the covers off. "I found a Miyuna!"

I blearily stared at Asahi's smiling face, "I just want to sleep."

Hirana chuckled softly as she plucked me off their bed to my annoyance. "Yes I know, but you know you're not allowed in here by yourself."

"I want to sleep." I repeated groggily as I wrapped my arms around Hirana's neck and snuggled into her chest.

"Alright, alright, you can stay here tonight. But after you brush your teeth, your breath smells so fishy." She kissed me on the side of my head before sending me off to the bathroom. "Asahi, help her out will you? I'm going to check on the boys."

I felt a hand rest behind my head, gently willing me to go to the bathroom and stay awake long enough to brush my teeth.

Asahi chuckled lightly from behind, making me realize I dozed off sometime while I still had my toothbrush in my mouth. "That tired, huh?"

Nodding sleepily in response, Asahi gave another chuckle before whisking me into his arms, laying my head in the crook of his elbows like how he used to cradle me when I was a baby. It was strange to be in this position again, but oddly very comfortable. Gently he swayed left and right as he made his way to the bedroom he shared with Hirana. I was getting sleepier by the second, his swaying defeated what little resistance I had against Sleep.

"You only have to endure your brothers' crying for a little while longer. We're moving to a bigger house Monday and then you'll have your own room with a sound-proof seal."

"Really, sound-proof?"

"Yes, I'll have Kakashi-kun whip up a seal. Now go to sleep, Yuna-chan."

Just like that I was gone the instant I relaxed into his arms and shut my eyes.

We moved to a townhouse on Monday just like Asahi promised. It was closer to both my parents' workplace as well as my school. Not to mention, the place was much bigger than our two bedroom apartment, featuring two floors with four bedrooms. And the best thing? Asahi had my room sound-proofed.

A man with white silvery hair sticking up in the strangest way appeared in a poof into my bedroom wearing a creepy looking porcelain mask with some red paint swirls as designs. He spoke very little and when he did his voice was aloof and cold. What unnerved me the most was when he angled his head down towards me and I saw a red glint flash in the mask's left eye hole. It made me flinch. "Sorry," he had apologized lowly in response which made me flinch again. I didn't expect him to notice me flinching. But then again, he was a _shinobi_.

I missed some of the words he exchanged with Asahi but he pulled out a small slip of paper, no longer than the length of his palm. There was some calligraphy writing on them in black which I couldn't quite make out. The masked man placed the paper on my door and weaved together some hand signs. They were to help with channeling the chakra to perform jutsu, Asahi had attempted to explain to me once (before I ran away). Suddenly, it felt like I lost my hearing. I couldn't hear the birds chirping outside or the chattering of Hirana talking to my brothers next door.

"Thank you, Kakashi-kun." Asahi smiled at the masked _ninja_. "Would you like to stay for dinner? Hira-chan is making your favorite tonight, broiled saury with salt and miso soup."

I hadn't gone deaf after all. The paper plus the hand signs were able to make my room sound-proof. This world was getting stranger and stranger. And these _ninjas_ were turning out to be more and more like magicians every time I encounter them.

"If you don't need me anymore I will be taking my leave, sir." The white-silver haired man disappeared in a poof like how he arrived. Perhaps one of these days I will get used to that.

"Ah, I take that as a no." My father murmured dejectedly.


	6. My Luck Has Run Out

**Chapter Five – My Luck Has Run Out**

It was amazing how fast time could fly if you paid little attention to it. I had just turned seven. Seven! Seven fricking years had already passed since my reincarnation! Now I really deserved that golden star, because guess what? Still doing really well avoiding _ninja_!

The twins were now three. It seemed it was just yesterday the twins were born. They were mischievous little devils, exactly how I pictured them when they were born. When they're not crying their heads off they love to run around the village wreaking havoc by tackling unsuspecting civilians, stealing weapons from busy _shinobi_, and worst of all dragging me around town into their shenanigans.

Since we're on the topic of how everyone was growing up, the three genin-brats weren't really brats anymore. Now sixteen years old, they had made it onto chunin level, no longer having to complete those "stupid babysitting missions" they had grumbled on about. Jounin, chunin, genin all confused me until I eavesdropped onto Jomei and Tobari's lesson with our father.

My parents had been preparing the twins for their enrollment in the ninja academy next week for a few months now. You heard right, the two little devils were going to the ninja academy. I tried to convince them otherwise, telling them it was going to be difficult path. A path that was not as heroic as they truly thought. But they were too adamant about being "cool and powerful" like the Hokage. I had to relent in the end. It was their choice like it was mine before.

The lectures I overheard Tou-chan teaching the twins in the backyard, I had to admit, were interesting especially ones about the workings of this world. The Hokage was the leader of our village, the strongest ninja in the Fire Country. He holes himself up mostly in that big-red building in front of mountain-side images of all the Hokage's faces. I've never seen him before but from what I've heard he looks like any old geezer apparently. So, maybe I passed him on the streets and never realized. Under the Hokage were jounin, chunin, genin, and finally the students of the ninja academy respectively in that order. And, _chakra_. An energy that flows inside the body, combining spiritual and physical energies into one_;_ it fuels a _shinobi's jutsu_. In other words, it was the juice to the magic tricks those _shinobi_ perform.

Okay, I'm cheating a bit in my rule to avoid everything about _shinobi_. But it's interesting! It's not like I can avoid it completely either. Both my parents were _shinobi_ and the twins were on track to become _shinobi_. Life was pretty boring these days and my father's lectures, which by the way can be heard from inside the house, were what made my life exciting. I couldn't complain exactly, I chose the civilian life – the path where I could at least pass my tenth birthday. One strange thing did happen when I was five, it was about a month after the twins were born. We had a stranger visit our house. It was by an old man with bandages wrapped around one of his eyes. He also had a distinct "x" shaped scar on his chin. At first it seemed he had come over for tea like he was perhaps a family member. But I realized something was wrong when Tou-chan ushered me away. I met his eyes briefly but I could see a deep concern in my father's dark orbs. Curiously, I went to my bedroom in obedience but I left my door cracked so I could hear their conversation.

"I hear she's quite brilliant. Why hasn't she started the ninja academy? Perhaps you wish to train her yourself? A wise and thoughtful choice, Shimewari-kun." The strange man's gruff voice sent chills down my spine. He wasn't like the other _ninja _I encountered occasionally. There was no warmth in his voice, only a demanding authority and it was void of all emotion. Even Itachi lightened up when he talked about his younger brother and Kakashi showed a bit of emotion when the twins tackled him whenever he visited.

"She chooses not to be ninja." My father stated simply.

"What? That's preposterous! Why would you waste such–?"

"It was her choice and I respect that. Nothing you can do or say will change anything."

There was that topic again. My most hated topic, the one I worked so hard to avoid yet I am surrounded by every day. I nearly died of a heart attack thinking of all the things my father was going to say. Was he going to throw me to the ninja academy if this guy ordered him to do so? It was obvious that whoever was sitting at our dinner table right now was in a higher position than Tou-chan. Perhaps he was the Hokage. Yeah, that would make sense. The leader of this ninja village needed to be cold, heartless, and intimidating. He runs an army of _ninja_. He has to have all of those qualities. Oh god, I was panicking again. I may have been born to two very kind parents. But I was born into a village with a terrifying leader. Was he going to kill Asahi for my decision to be a civilian?

"What about your sons?"

"They will have a choice too."

"You've grown too soft, Shimewari-kun. Your children should be _ninjas_. You are wasting their potential. They are _his _grandchildren. I demand you forfeit them into my care. I will train them–"

"You no longer have any jurisdiction over me. If you've only come here to demand that I hand over my children then I suggest you leave and never come back because that is never going to happen."

Tensely, I waited for sounds to erupt from the kitchen. Something that would tell me that a fight broke out and I needed to jump out the window and find the nearest _ninja_ for help. But on a second thought, I doubted any _ninja_ would go against their leader, their boss, to help me. I felt fear immobilize my limbs and my breath hitch in my throat. Tou-chan was going to be murdered because of me. Miyuna's father was going to be murdered because I didn't want to become a ninja. Someone was going to die again because of my selfish decision. It was like before. I had begged my father to stop going away on missions and finally he gave in seeing that Hirana was pregnant again. He chose to send others on missions in his place and as a result I've seen him with a saddened look as he comes home from work. His aloofness on those "bad days" at work I would later find out was because his friends had died on the mission he sent them on. They died because _I _made my father quit his active duty.

"Miyuna-chan. Breathe, he's gone now."

I was having a panic attack I realized. Some time had passed and the man had left.

Tou-chan comforted me in his arms. "He's gone now. I won't let him get you. You don't have to be a shinobi if you don't want to. It's alright."

"Was he the Hokage?" I croaked into his chest.

"What? Of course not. The Hokage is a very kind man who serves to protect everyone in the village and he desires to see everyone in his village happy. That man was– Never mind, you'll never see him again so don't worry about it."

At my father's soothing words, I forgot about the incident quickly.

Since I was older now, my parents mostly left me in charge of Tobari and Jomei after school. It was safe to say we were finally growing out of our babysitter ages, well at least I was. It was typical for some random genin team to drop the two off at my civilian school after class. Then, I would walk home with the two in tow or watch them goof off at a nearby playground while I started on my homework assignments. Depending on where we were and how the twins were feeling, they would beg me to go visit either our mother or our father at their work places. Usually, I shoot them down, resulting in being bullied by the two throwing dirt and biting me. Other times, I have to chase after them as they ran straight into our father's work place where one of two things would happen depending on the day. Sometimes, there was a masked _shinobi_ who kicked us out saying, "This is no place for little kids!" Or, there was a nicer blonde haired _shinobi_ who would kindly lead us to our father who would then greet us with a smile before sending us on our way again. Basically, we always get kicked out, only getting kicked out by our father was so much nicer.

Maybe today would be a good day.

"HEY! Don't throw dirt at me! OW! Don't bite me, Jomei!" I screeched.

This was pretty standard with the twins. Biting me, throwing dirt and other objects at me. Anything really to make my life babysitting them a hell.

"You have to the count of five to behave. Or else!"

"Or else what?" They taunted at the same time.

"We're not going to see Tou-chan!"

I smirked in satisfaction as the two stiffened and obediently each grabbed onto one of my hands so we could continue our walk through the village.

At least I found how I could control them. Can't believe they're only three and they're already such a handful.

When our father's building came into view, the twins suddenly bolted towards it. It was a wonder how they managed to master running so quickly. Their stubby little legs were no disadvantage against my longer ones. Not once had I been able to catch either of them when we played tag together or just chasing after them in general. "Tou-chan!" They chimed and jumped into his unsuspecting arms just as he was making his way outside. Meanwhile, I was sprinting as fast as I could to catch up. It had to be the _shinobi_ training my parents gave them.

"You're so slow, Nee-chan." Tobari stuck his tongue at me while Jomei agreed with him.

I huffed, but didn't say anything in reply. It wasn't worth my time and I wasn't immature like them to do something petty like insulting them back. "Yeah, yeah."

"Is your nee-chan taking good care of you?" Our father asked before lifting the twins high up onto his shoulders simultaneously, earning delighted squeals from both. What a show off, I thought, seeing how our father juggled the twins in his arms by throwing and swinging them up into the air alternatively.

"Nee-chan was being mean." Tobari tattle-tailed.

I gaped at the twins as they began to whine about how "mean" I was.

"Miyuna," our father clicked his tongue at me and gave me one of his playful glares, the one that lights up his eyes exactly like the boys when they're up to no good. He only playfully scolds me so that he could make the boys giggle but I was still annoyed. The two of us go to such lengths just to make these twins happy; they have no idea how spoiled they were.

"Please be patient with your brothers, okay? Oh, and why do you have so many bruises? I hope you're not getting into any fights with your classmates." Something that was an absolute no in our household was getting into physical fights. Verbal fights were an iffy no; he warned us to choose our words carefully which could help avoid physical fights. Not that it mattered much to me since I had no desire to do any physical fighting with anyone, I thought he was a bit of a hypocrite for saying that we couldn't fight. Jomei and Tobari were going to become _shinobi_ meaning they would have to get into plenty of physical fights in the near future. For an easy-going father, he was pretty harsh on this rule. Our mother was too. And, somehow they both really emphasized this rule onto me, more than the twins. Do I look like someone to get into fights?

I thought I was cute. I mostly looked like Hirana, brown hair with a deep red tint when light shined on it and sunny caramel eyes. The twins looked like Asahi; they were little copies of him. Same eyes and same hair. According to Genma-san, I inherited Asahi's cool personality while the boys had Hirana's fiery personality. It was hard to imagine Hirana was once like the twins – biting people and tackling people in the streets.

"The twins bit me and threw dirt at me." I stated simply.

"They what?" My father looked at the twins in his arms, with a flicker of both surprise and fright swirling in his eyes. It was a look of, "are these two actually my sons?"

"Why don't you go play until dinner time?" Tou-chan smiled at me before proceeding to scold the twins. "You two are in a lot of trouble when we get home."

"Awwww no! I want to go play with Nee-chan!" Jomei and Tobari whined upon hearing our father giving me permission to go play by myself.

"Oh no you don't, young sirs. We have a lot to talk about." I watched the comic scene of Jomei and Tobari struggling to get away but failing miserably.

"Bye Tou-chan!"

I didn't really know what to do with my free time. I had no friends at school because I didn't bother trying to make friends with the kids there. They were stupid. What? They were. And, avoiding _shinobi_ kids had been an ongoing thing since I found out about them. Basically, wandering around the village was how I spent the free time my parents gave me. I didn't want to admit to my parents that I had no friends because I knew somehow that wasn't going to end up well. Kaa-chan would probably drag me off to a playground and force me to make at least one friend. They often asked who I had played with at the end of the day which I've started responding with random names I found in the books I've been reading in class. If they ever found out I was making names up I could simply state they were my imaginary friends. See, fool proof plan. I was perfectly fine being a loner. After all, the twins gave me plenty of company.

_Oof._ I was met with a stinging pain on my nose and forehead before falling flat onto my back. Guess I wasn't watching where I was going when I was thinking about my friend-less situation. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the blue sky and then two older boys looking down at me.

"Itachi, you just knocked over some poor girl." The taller, older looking boy teased.

_Itachi_. I remembered that name, even though it had been a few years. My father had banned me from seeing the Uchiha, not that it was very hard as I hardly ran into them at all while roaming the village. I had enjoyed the talk last time with Itachi since he had understood me best out of anyone I had talked to concerning _shinobi stuff_. I had hoped to bump into him while I played around in the streets but we never crossed paths again since that day. Maybe I just needed to run aimlessly around the village as it seems that was how I've been running into the Uchiha clan, literally.

"Miyuna?"

"Itachi-san!" I smiled brightly at him while dusting myself off.

"Awww, are you friends with Sasuke from the academy?" The other boy chuckled, pulling my attention away from Itachi.

"Sasuke?" It took me a few seconds to remember that Sasuke was Itachi's younger brother. "Oh no, I don't go to the ninja academy."

"Why not?" A look of surprise came across his face.

To avoid his question, I replied, "My dad said I shouldn't talk to strangers."

"Ah don't be like that! You know Itachi right? I'm his cousin, Shisui! There, now we're not strangers."

Hard to believe the two were actually related. Itachi was so monotone and stone-faced while Shisui was so expressive with his words and borderline annoying.

"So how come you don't go to the ninja academy? Don't you think it's a cool profession?" He was pushy too, unlike Itachi.

"Sorry for bumping into you guys, Itachi-san, Shisui-san. But I have to go now."

"Aww we were just getting acquainted, Miyuna-chan." Shisui pouted as he restrained me from running away by grabbing onto the back of my shirt. I squeaked in surprise at the sudden force causing me to twirl around so I would be facing them again.

I stiffened unconsciously when I had my bearings straight again. "How do you know my name?"

"Well–" he trailed off as he thought about my question for a bit. "I'll tell you if you tell me why you don't want to become a ninja."

_Grrrr._ I snuck a glance at Itachi which was a bad idea because he was amusedly staring back at me. "I'm also curious from last time." Itachi smiled gently at me when our eyes caught each other. His smile really threw me off.

Great, he was no help at all. And I feel bad for refusing a smiling Itachi, a rarity in itself. Or maybe I just got a really bad impression of him.

"I hardly think it's a cool profession." I eventually responded with an irritated sigh. There was no way out of this. I could run away but that would most likely not end well considering I can't even run faster than the twins. The chances of them actually chasing after me were thin but I had too much pride to let it all go and run away just to avoid a question. Besides, it's not like they'll kill me or something if I answered honestly. The most they'll do is laugh or convince me otherwise. In that case, I was sure Itachi wouldn't laugh because he and I shared the same concerns. As for Shisui – eh, who cares what he thinks. He's annoying.

"Why not?" This was sounding more and more like a trick the twins liked to play. You keep giving an answer but they just continue to ask you why until you ultimately lose your cool.

Was he naïve or just stupid? "I think you know the answer to your own question." I countered quite heatedly.

Itachi chose this moment to butt in, adding more to my irritation. These two were ruining my already not so great day. "You made me question my own reasons that day when you came to our house. Your words were far wiser than even the adults that I talked to on a daily basis. You made me realize that I wanted to become stronger to protect my younger brother, my friends, and my village. And now, I want to return that favor."

Blinking several times in attempt to gauge what was going on, I was at a loss at what Itachi had just said. I hadn't thought my words to him meant much three years ago. The words out of my mouth were simply worried babblings. Now he wants to return the favor? What favor had I done him?

"–You are correct in thinking that the ninja world is no laughing matter. It is full of danger and death every corner you turn. But being a ninja is much more than just that. There is a reason why so many of us still continue to go down the arduous path of a ninja. It's because we have this desire to protect those who can't. You go to a school where all the kids are civilians, meaning they don't have the chakra system or strength or even the courage to protect themselves if the village becomes under attack. It is the job of the _shinobi_ in this village to lay down their lives for those who cannot fight to protect themselves."

Words had flown out of my mouth before I could think over them for a second time. And they were a lot harsher than I intended. "That's almost identical to what Tou-chan said to me before. But I'm not stupid enough to mindlessly kill another person if I was ordered too."

I watched in mild fear to see if the two Uchiha clan members were offended by what I said. I basically just called all _shinobi_ stupid. Surprisingly, they shot me a smile after a flicker of bewilderment came across their faces. Even Itachi was smiling again, albeit significantly less than Shisui who was grinning with all of his teeth.

Shisui was the first to respond, cutting off his cousin before he could say anything. "Then don't mindlessly kill another person. Those who follow rules and orders without thinking over them themselves first are nothing but low-ranking idiots. They're the first to go on a battlefield."

"You make it sound so easy." I murmured underneath my breath.

Shisui burst out laughing and I was itching to kick him in the shin to shut him up. I decided against that when I noticed he had shin guards on. It would probably hurt me more than I could hurt him.

A heavy hand suddenly grabbed my head, tousling my red-hued hair, making the strands stick out in places I didn't want it to. "Gah!" I tried to push the hand off my head, but I was only met with chuckles from Shisui. Eventually, I gave up and watched helplessly as Shisui bent down in front of my face as he continued to rub my head. "What I meant is that the weapons and jutsu ninjas have were created not to kill but to protect the ones close to them–"

"YUNA-NEECHAN!"

I inwardly groaned, recognizing the two shrill voices anywhere. They were also the only ones to call me "Yuna-neechan." They were ruining a rather heartfelt moment.

"Who are these two?" Shisui chuckled when the twins latched onto each one of my arms.

"This is Tobari and Jomei, my brothers." I reluctantly introduced them, pointing to each respective twin.

"No, I'm Jomei and he's Tobari."

"Ugh, whatever– OW!" I screeched, pulling my arm out of Tobari's mouth only to find another set of red teeth marks to add to my collection.

"Will you take us out of the village? Father said no, but you'll take us?" It was beyond creepy when the twins talked simultaneously, especially when they're asking for a request. I understood it was a twin thing, but it was just so unnerving. They talked the same, had the same pitch in voice, same syntax, and could finish each other's sentences. Literally, they could trick someone into thinking they could already perform that Clone Jutsu I heard our father bait them with few days ago.

"Aw twins, how fun." Shisui chuckled again and went to pat them on the heads too.

"Don't touch them–!"

_CHOMP._ It was too late for my warning to have any effect.

"OWWWWW!" A howl of pain erupted from Shisui as he shook the twins off his hands.

"Rawr, I'm a dinosaur."

"And I'm a shark."

I tugged on the collars of their shirts to reign them in before they could attack Itachi. Though I was sure he didn't need any help dodging them since he's used to dealing with Sasuke's antics even if his own younger brother wasn't a little fiend as a toddler. "Jomei and Tobari, I'm telling Tou-chan and he won't ever teach you two the Clone Jutsu now. In fact, once he hears of what you two just did, he'll never let you sign up at the ninja academy."

"NOOOO!" They replied with ear-splitting wails.

That was a bad choice. And, hadn't Tou-chan just scolded them on biting people? "Shush you two! If you're good for the rest of the day I won't tell Tou-chan."

"We will. We will! Please don't tell!"

"Then apologize to person you just bit."

"Sorry." It was strange how the two suddenly became so bashful when it came to apologizing. They weren't meeting Shisui's eyes, instead choosing to look at the ground while hiding as much as they could behind me.

"That's alright," Shisui begun laughing again, already shrugging off what had occurred a few seconds earlier. "It was nice meeting all three children of Asahi and Hirana, but Itachi and I have a mission to attend to. Maybe we'll see each other soon and we can continue our talk, Miyuna-chan." With that he and Itachi disappeared in a puff of smoke, the Body Flicker Jutsu, I came to recognize it as.

_How did they know our parents?_

"Nee-chan, will you take us out of the village?" Tobari tugged on my arm, jolting me out of my thoughts.

"We can't go out of the village, but I'll take you to the gates. Does that sound fair, Tobari?"

"Okay," he responded a little dejectedly. "But I'm Jomei though."

"Oh whatever!"

XXX

The front gates of the village were always open during the day as daily shipments of supplies went in and out. Other than shipments most traffic were ninja-diplomats coming in from other countries to discuss political matters and security concerns, and our own hidden-in-the-leaf village _shinobi_ who were leaving and returning from missions. It was a threshold people were not allowed to pass without permission, leaving or returning. Ninjas and especially civilians weren't allowed to leave the village without the needed documents – either mission documents or moving documents. But recently, I heard they were beginning to allow more and more civilians to travel to other towns in the Fire Country with just a verbal statement. Traveling to other countries without permission was still a big NO. But who had the desire to do so anyways, it was extremely dangerous.

"Hey, what's going on over there, Yuna-Neechan?" One of the twins pointed out the group of people who appeared to be surrounding someone on the ground.

The three of us walked closer to the gates in curiosity. "TENKA!" I froze at the chilling screams that erupted from the two younger males. _Tenka._ She and her two teammates bumped into me in town the other day. "We're going on a recon mission, isn't that cool?" Wakaro had exclaimed to me, the three jubilant over the fact that they graduated from babysitting missions (mainly babysitting me). I had just seen them, smiling and teasing me about how cute and pretty I've grown up to be. _She_ had grown to be a pretty young lady too.

In between the frantic shuffling of the ninjas surrounding her body, I saw red. _Blood_ was pooling onto the ground beneath her. The scene of her two crying teammates and the impassive tone of the other ninjas telling them, "Dry your tears. _Shinobi don't show their emotions,_" made me angry. The angriest I'd ever remembered being. It scared me. Why was I so angry? Shouldn't I be sad instead? Why was I so emotional? I had hated the three brats, never giving them the time of day, always running away from them only to lead them on a wild-goose chase around the village. They were _shinobi_. They knew this was going to happen. I knew this was going to happen. Was I guilty for how I treated them?

I knew death well, I thought. I had died once and now here I was, reincarnated as Miyuna, in a world of more death. Was I afraid of ending up dead again? Was I afraid of becoming like _Tenka_? I would only get reincarnated again. Dying for real would be nice too since I would finally be at "rest" and out of this strange and dangerous world.

_Whoosh_. I snapped out of it when a red-hued hair like mine ghosted past the three of us. It was Kaa-chan. Blankly, I watched her hands glow an iridescent green and loomed over Tenka's body. Medical ninjutsu, she explained to me once when I had tripped over my brothers and scraped my knee. The green glow was warm and had sealed up my wound. _That's right._ Hirana could save her. Tenka would be fine and so were those two boys.

"Miyuna, let's go." I flinched at my father's voice. I hadn't realized he had come to the gates along with our mother. The twins were already in his arms, playing some clapping game with each other and being cheerful as always. They hadn't gathered what was going on. Which I felt thankful for. When I made no response or any movement to follow him, Asahi repeated himself with a bit more sternness in his voice. "Miyuna, let's go."

His voice was steady. The intonation was firm, but I didn't miss the slight quiver of concern in his eyes when I looked up at him. I willed my body to turn my back to the scene and follow my father home. It was silent between the two of us while the twins were happily chatting about their day.

The walk home, I couldn't remember any of it. I also didn't remember eating dinner or taking a bath but somehow all those things happened. When I snapped out of my trance, I was standing in my bedroom doorway, ready to be tucked in by Asahi.

It had been such a sharp turn in events. First I had been running around town, and then I found myself having a very serious talk with Itachi and Shisui. Jomei and Tobari came running to me afterwards and everything had been okay until we were at the gates. I had just begun to accept everything and come to some admiration for _shinobi_ life. Now everything was thrown in my face, like a hard slap to the face. I didn't understand how these _shinobi_ could be so brave. To give their lives away like it was nothing. Were they truly this selfless?

"Miyuna-chan," there I was again, getting jolted out of my deep thoughts that I didn't know I had left reality to go to.

That's right, I had just finished brushing my teeth and taking a bath by myself. Hirana was still gone; she always helped me take a bath even though I didn't require any assistance.

Asahi was standing by my bed, lifting up a corner of my blanket so that I could crawl underneath with more ease. I stiffly padded across my wooden floors. Asahi and Hirana didn't tuck me in bed anymore since I was older now and the twins required most attention. Typically, I was already in bed when my parents come by to tell me goodnight. But tonight, he was waiting for me.

I shuffled into a comfortable lying position before pulling my blanket over my body with the help of Asahi. I felt so numb to everything, so unsure of how I was supposed to feel. Where was Kaa-chan? I wanted to ask.

"You've always been incredibly mature for your age, Yuna-chan. For that, I don't wish to hide things from you–" He trailed off, seemingly thinking over his next words. "Your mother and the doctors did everything they could, but Tenka didn't make it. You were close to those three weren't you?"

Nothing. I felt nothing when he revealed the result of this afternoon's events. No remorse, no anger, just emptiness. Like the absent memories I'm still looking for.

"Okay," I murmured. "I wasn't close to them."

I was grateful for his decision to drop the conversation. He sighed but no more words came out of his mouth other than bidding me good night. "Sleep well, Yuna-chan." He leaned in to give me a kiss on the forehead before leaving to tend to the impatient twins the room over.

I laid there stiffly for a long time before I finally fell asleep.

I met a man as I wandered wearily into the dream world. He was strange looking – skin pale as snow with deep wrinkles etched onto his face. A long-pointed beard grew out of his chin adding to his seemingly old age along with the wrinkles. His legs were crossed beneath him; one hand was stiffly poised by his chest and the other hand resting on his lap. I stared at his figure across the pond of lily pads, trying to decide whether I should approach him or not.

His eyes snapped opened suddenly, revealing rings circling the dark dot of his pupil in the middle, and I was caught in them. The sudden unwavering attention of his lilac colored eyes trapped me. I meant to look away – look at anything else but his eyes – but it felt like the wind had stopped and the oxygen in my lungs stuck at an impasse. Like everything had stopped, including time.

Then the wind began to blow again, tickling my face and hair, and all the oxygen held in my lungs escaped to join its friends in the air before I innately took them back into my lungs. "Are you not going to come over, but stare at me all day?" I flinched at his voice. It was deep, rumbling with wisdom but also with a tinge of salty grief.

I stared at the waterline of the pond, inches away from my bare little toes. "Well?" With his second urging, I quickly dipped my feet into the water. It was icy-cold against my warm skin, and instinctively I took a step back onto the shoreline. I made a mistake by sneaking a glance at him; he had closed one eye before closing the other one and emitted a miniscule sigh of irritation. In flustered response, I braved the coldness and padded into the pond, navigating around the pink and white lily pads that would occasionally float in front of my path.

The water started out by my ankles, quickly moving up to my hip. And as I neared his lily pad, I was stuck neck deep in the surprisingly clear waters. I snuck another glance at the man to see if he would help me, but his eyes remained closed like before. I kicked my feet off the sandy floor of the pond so I could dog-paddle with my face out of the water to his lily pad.

Breathless now, I finally reached his lily pad. It was far larger than the rest of the lily pads as it had to be to support this strange looking man. I grabbed the tip of the lily pad and proceeded to crawl my way onto it. It dipped and submerged beneath the water the instant I pushed my weight on top of it. The lily pad wavered in the water, sending rolls every time I so much touch the lily pad, struggling as much as I did to adjust to my weight. The strange man made no acknowledgement towards me, which I was thankful for, but I couldn't help but heat up in apologetic embarrassment for making such a disturbance with my clumsy movement.

How did this guy manage to stay perfectly afloat on top of this lily pad?

When I finally found my balance, though my feet still dipped down on the lily pad, I waited in quiet, anxiousness for him to acknowledge me.

"Are you quite done?" His voice rumbled again, the hint of annoyance in his voice was strikingly evident.

I cringed. "Yes," I immediately squeaked in response. His lips curved into a slight smirk, almost like he was sadistically enjoying my embarrassment.

"What is the name they gave you?"

Quizzically, I found it strange the way he worded his question. Why not just bluntly ask "what is your name?"

"Miyuna Shimewari." I answered after a few seconds had passed.

His smirk twisted. Now his lips resembled something akin to a smile, one filled with something that I couldn't quite place my finger on. Content? Reminiscence? Delight? His eyes sparkled with the same thing as he stared into my golden orbs, no longer holding the intensity that entrapped me before.

This dream is getting stranger and stranger.

"The end of darkness, how fitting." The man said more to himself than to me.

Perplexedly, I remained silent to see if he would explain his thoughts. When the silence went on too long for comfort, I opened my mouth to spew some questions of my own. "Who are you?"

"No one you should really entangle yourself with for the time being." His response was quick and vague, adding to my annoyance. I questioned him some more to see if he would answer any of my questions. "Is this a dream?"

"I'm sure you already know the answer yourself. Surely, if you are able to question if this is a dream, then the fact is this is not dream."

Ugh, this bastard.

"Then, why am I here?"

"Are you asking why you are here in this world, or why you are here meeting with me?"

I snipped at him, sending a glare in his direction. He was definitely teasing me now. "Both."

"Hm? Greedy are we not? Very well, I shall answer your questions. I take back saying that you do not need to entangle yourself with me for the moment, it will be easier in the future if you understood now." He smirked down at me. "You are my child, and I am your creator or more accurately I plucked your soul from your original world and placed you in the care of Hirana and Asahi, your parents in your current world. With you here, you've already changed the storyline. They were not meant to exist, but with you, they will continue to exist. I created you to become my tool, to help me change this world for the better."

"Change this world for the better?" I parroted, shocked by the change of events from a peaceful yet strange dream to a sudden realization of my existence in this world.

"Yes, I gave you this life. In return, you must become my tool and help me–"

"Wait," I screeched, halting him mid-sentence. "A tool? I am merely– How am I supposed to help you? And I–"

He groaned and appeared to almost roll his eyes, but I couldn't really tell since his eyes were so bizarre. "We've wasted too much time on your stupid questions." As if on cue, the lily pad we were on began to sink. "No matter, we will meet plenty of times in the future. For now, realize that there are special powers in this world that did not exist in your world before. Train and hone down these said powers, and grow strong."

"Wait! What?" I exclaimed at him as I flailed my body around to compensate for the unbalanced platform.

His figure suddenly shot up from his sitting position, causing the lily pad to sink even further and quicker. I grabbed his sleeve on instinct for balance.

"One last thing, Miyuna Shimewari, bad things will happen to your family whether you want it to or not. Decide if you want to protect them or watch them die like the coward you are now." He shook my hands off his sleeve and turned his back to me.

I was now more desperate than before to get answers. How can you just leave after telling someone their family is in danger and then call them a coward? As I was about to grab him again the footing beneath me slipped altogether and I found myself sinking deep into the cold pond. And, the light from my eyes disappeared completely.

"Miyuna!" It was odd to find my eyelids closed when I did not remember closing them and to find my once shivering body wrapped warmly in a soft blanket. My vision focused naturally when I peeled open my eyelids and I realized my dad was standing over my bed with a worried expression, calling my name several times. "Miyuna! You need to calm down!"

A shrill screech was piercing my ears as my eyes adjusted to the change in surroundings and I quickly realized it was my own. Suddenly I was squished into the arms of Asahi and the lights came on overhead.

"Everything is alright now, I'm here now. It was just a bad dream. Just breathe." He whispered to me softly. But no matter what words he said, they didn't comfort me in the least bit. If everything that man said was true. Nothing was going to be alright.

Black clouded my vision again and I was gone within seconds with Asahi's worried voice faintly calling my name over and over again before that too faded into complete dark silence.


	7. Aftermath

**Chapter Six – Aftermath**

I felt really disoriented. I peeled my eyes open painfully. A persistent throb was pulsing rhythmically at the sides of my temples. My eyes struggled to adjust to the brightness that came through the window to my left. It was quiet except for the ticking of the clock that sat on the bedside table to my right. Where was I? It wasn't my bedroom I realized as I sluggishly glanced around the room from my laying position. The bed was much larger than my own with simple white covers instead of the floral ones my mother had bought me. The room was also much larger but it was also a lot sparser. The only furniture in the room was the bed, bedside table with a lamp on top, and a small vanity. It was my parents' room I recognized.

What happened last night?

My memories came back quickly, like a flood.

_Bad things will happen to your family whether you want it to or not. Decide if you want to protect them or watch them die like the coward you are now._

Tears welled in my eyes and I brushed them away in frustration. They were going to die. I was going to lose everyone. I couldn't let that happen. I can't let that happen.

When had I become so attached to this world? I shifted out of bed to stare at my reflection in my mother's vanity mirror. I couldn't help but scoff at myself. This was turning out to be like one of those classic scenes in movies where the main character revaluates themselves in front of a mirror. The same seven year old I've been seeing the past year stared back at me. Sad caramel orbs and auburn hair. I wasn't dreaming. It was real; everything had been real for the past seven years. I often stood in front of my own mirror to see if a different reflection would appear but it was always Miyuna's. Though I wasn't sure who I expected to see instead of Miyuna. What did my old self look like? I'd become hopeful that maybe one day I'd see another reflection and being born into this world was just a dream. But even that small hope was quickly leaving me. There was no way I could escape this.

"You're awake," a voice spoke from behind me, making me flinch. Emerging from seemingly nowhere, a familiar white haired man appeared wearing a porcelain mask. It was _Kakashi. _I hadn't seen him in a while. He used to come over once a week for dinner but his visits stopped a year ago. Tou-chan and Kaa-chan were particularly fond of him, I could tell from their doting. It felt like he was a son who had been away for a long time. He always hid behind that porcelain mask no matter how many times my parents urged him to take it off. But he was stubborn, so stubborn that my parents eventually gave up trying to make him shed his porcelain mask. It was a mystery to me as to how he ate with the mask on. One second he has a full plate of steaming food in front of him and the next thing I know it's wiped clean. It must be the _shinobi_ speed. And let's not get started with his hair? Did he bleach it? Why would anyone want to bleach their hair white? Or perhaps he was an old man and that's why he didn't want to take of his mask. Because he had a face full of wrinkles.

He was the silent type. The classic intimidating and cold _shinobi_. His mask only made him seem more intimidating and cold though Tobari and Jomei both thought it looked cool. Seriously pondering about their judgement capabilities.

"Kakashi-san," I tried his name on my tongue softly.

He nodded. I twitched in miner annoyance at his response. Was it that hard to say something?

He was a hard person to forget, honestly, especially with his color of hair. And the way my parents doted on him, at first, I wondered if perhaps he was really an older sibling. But after doing the math to calculate how old he possibly was and how old my parents were when they "had" him, the ages didn't match. I tried conversing with him a few times. They never went over well. He wouldn't respond most times and quite frankly, he scared me most of the times with his mysterious mask.

I tore my gaze from my reflection."Why are you here?"

"Your father assigned me to watch you. Both your parents are at your brothers' entrance ceremony into the ninja academy. They'll be back in an hour or so."

My brothers were only three, nearing four, but they had exceeded the entrance qualifications. With their persistent whining, Tou-chan and Kaa-chan had no choice but to comply with their wishes and sign them up for an early entrance to the ninja academy. I furrowed my brow in confusion. The entrance ceremony wasn't supposed to happen for another week however. Tobari and Jomei had been overly excited since my parents announced their early entrance. Had they gotten an even earlier date? Seeing my reaction, Kakashi-san started explaining. "You've been unconscious for almost a week."

I gaped at him. Unconscious for a week? How did I stay unconscious for a week? What about school? I mentally slapped myself. The first thing I freak out about is missing school? When did I become such a stickler for being the perfect student?

I shakenly asked, "What happened?"

"You unleashed nearly all of your chakra at once. You would have died if your father hadn't calmed you down when he did."

_Chakra. _The life force within every living being. A combination of spiritual and physical elements. Other than those short explanations, I didn't know what it was exactly. Shinobi used it to perform their jutsu. For normal civilians, like the one I was striving to be, it was simply the life force that kept us alive like blood and oxygen. The teachers at the civilian school touched upon it briefly. An unsettling feeling welled up in my stomach. I backtracked his words to realize he said I almost died from unleashing nearly all of my _chakra_.

"– Since you've never had any chakra training, your body didn't take it too well. What exactly did you dream about?"

Silence ensued between us. I wasn't about to discuss what occurred in my nightmare with anyone, much less this stranger. Besides, I was still trying to mull over the fact that I almost died. What would happen if I died again? Would I get reincarnated or would I finally be able to rest?

_I plucked your soul from your original world and placed you in the care of Asahi and Hirana, your parents in this world._

"Miyuna." His voice pulled me out of my thoughts. It was softer than the sentences he spoke before, like he was genuinely trying to be sincere and not make me flinch. It made me wonder why the sudden change in demeanor. Could he also have nightmares too? That made me relax in his presence just a bit. His sincerity was a nice contrast to his intimidating stature.

"Yes?"

"What was your dream about?"

"It wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare." I murmured out a correction. I glanced at the two holes in his mask where his eyes should be but quickly pried my attention away, remembering he had that ominous red glint in his left eye. I don't exactly know why it unnerved me so much but it just did. Red was such an aggressive color, and abnormal color for an eye especially. The last time I looked into his eyes, I felt like I was being suffocated.

I couldn't tell him about my nightmare. What would be the reaction if I told him that I was reincarnated? That someone had the intention of using me as a tool to get what he wanted? As a good _shinobi_ I undoubtedly believed him to be, he would tell my parents and then the Hokage. I started gnawing at the insides of my cheek in anxiety. I lived in a _shinobi_ village. If I told anyone, there was absolutely no uncertainty that I would be thrown into captivity to be tortured and killed – I would be an unknown enemy who had infiltrated the village. Or, they would think something was seriously wrong with me and throw me into an asylum. I already had a bad record of being "abnormal," they wouldn't have trouble taking me away from my parents and locking me up. Both of these scenarios were definitely not where I wanted to end up. I shuttered in fright.

He asked again, this time with my correction. "What was your nightmare about?"

"I don't remember." I tried to brush off his interrogating questions.

I let out a squeak in surprise when his gloved hands scooped me up from underneath my armpits. Suddenly, it felt like I was flying as he brought me to his eye level. This was quite embarrassing. I hadn't been picked up since I turned seven. I was growing too big for someone to carry in their arms much to my disappointment.

He definitely had no experience with children. He was uncomfortably supporting all of my body weight just by holding my armpits. His thumbs were digging into my shoulder and my feet awkwardly dangled midair.

"I can tell you're lying. Was it about that girl that died at the southern gates yesterday?" He paused a bit as if to contemplate what to say next. "Ninjas die all the time. It's an occupational hazard. You need to get over it."

Typical ninja response. I had expected him to be different. To be understanding. There was melancholy in his voice as he spoke, like he was straining to keep his voice neutral. I had thought that maybe he was hurting too because he lost someone and maybe he would understand my pain. But he was just like any other _shinobi_, a cold bastard, who didn't even mourn for the loss of their comrades.

The way their eyes reflected pain, the way their voices quivered, the way their shoulders slumped over. I was always good at reading people from their voices and their mannerisms. It came with the game I liked to play by myself while I strolled through town – people-watching. At first, it was fun to use my imagination to come with silly conversations for people. Then, it turned into a puzzle almost. I would try to figure out people's emotions from their mannerisms and tone of voice when they talked.

And that's when I started noticing this bubbling feeling inside of me whenever I was physically close to someone, like a tickle deep in my stomach that I couldn't quite get to. If I got close to a _shinobi_ the feeling would be significantly more prominent than if I got close to an ordinary civilian. It was bothersome at first but after a few days I could forget about it and it would go away. But if I really concentrated on it, the feeling would emerge again. It was hard to place. If I could paint a picture of what I was feeling, it was like a wisp that floated around each person. It felt like I could almost touch it when I was close enough to someone. And, everyone had a different wisp. Some were fizzy and some were gentle. Itachi's almost felt like it tasted like dango. And others were just plain simple. Kakashi's was hard to place. It kind of reeked of wet dogs.

His words made me hate this world even more. No crying, no mourning, no emotions. How could a human life be valued so little here? All sorts of insults were dancing on my tongue and I felt an overwhelming urge to punch his face. It'd probably hurt seeing it was made from porcelain but it would be totally worth it. How could he tell me to blow off Tenka's death like it was nothing, like it was only an occupational hazard? She died to protect everyone in the village and no one even acknowledges that. Wasn't she a fellow comrade? She was so young; she didn't deserve to die.

I actually did it.

I punched him.

And it felt so good. On the inside I mean. Not really on the outside.

His face moved to the side as result of the force. I glowered at the slits in his mask, where his eyes should be, as he straightened out his neck. It didn't seem to make any scratch on his porcelain mask or faze him for that matter. Me on the other hand, my knuckles were a bit bruised and throbbing. "She died to protect everyone in the village, don't brush her death off so lightly!"

This time, my words seemed to burn him. The hands holding my armpits dug deeper into my shoulders, causing me to let out a whine of pain.

"Ow!"

"Sorry," he muttered. For a moment, I thought he might squeeze until my arms snapped off. And I almost severely regretted angrily punching an ANBU in the face because he could've easily killed me.

I stepped around him to leave my parents' bedroom. He followed much to my chagrin. But on a second thought, staying in someone's bedroom without their knowledge was kind of awkward so I urged my anger to back-off. I reached for my bedroom's door and turned it slowly. Kakashi was about to follow me in but I quickly snapped at him, "I'm going to change."

He obediently let me close the door in his face.

I grabbed a simple baby-blue t-shirt from my drawers along with a pair of soft navy pants. Swiftly, I changed out of my pink stripped pajamas and into the clothes I picked out for myself.

"I want to be alone," I told him as I stepped back out of my room. He was exactly where I had left him.

He nodded in response and his body warped away.

I thought about joining my parents at my brothers' ceremony, but I didn't really feel like confronting them at the moment. Not when I felt like I would burst out crying if I saw their faces and to think that I might never see them again one day.

_Decide if you want to protect them or watch them die like the coward you are now._

Clenching my fists in frustration, I pushed my tears back. Crying would get me nowhere and I wasn't like my brothers, a young child. Miyuna was seven, but _I _knew I was actually older. I just don't know how much older. I stepped out of our house to wander the streets in hopes of clearing my head. Surprisingly, Kakashi didn't appear to stop me.

_They're going to die._

Those thoughts started bugging me again no matter how hard I tried to push them to a corner of my brain. I didn't want to lose them. I wasn't the person I was before anymore. I wasMiyuna Shimewari. I _am _Miyuna Shimewari. Reincarnation, yeah that, I needed to get over it. It's been seven fucking years. I was stuck. I needed to get over it. _Get over it. Get over it_. The words were like a mantra I repeated to myself as I walked.

A light-hearted chuckle interrupted my thoughts. "Shouldn't you be in school? Are you skipping?" Before I could stop myself I walked straight into someone's stomach. More chuckles followed and I felt hands gently rest on my shoulders to pull my face away from the stomach I face-planted in, "You gotta stop running into people. Look straight ahead when you walk, not down."

It was Shisui with his quirky smirk. I gaped up at him, he was one of those people I really didn't expect to ever encounter again. I mean the village was a decent size, not too small that I would know everyone but not too big that I wouldn't encounter strangers over again. But Shisui was a person I had mentally taken a note to avoid. It had taken three years for me to run into Itachi again but just a week to see him a second time. I was beginning to think that Fate had such a curious way of making me suffer. And why did I have such a knack for running into Uchiha clan members? Literally.

"Why the sad look, Miyuna-chan?"

Of all the people I could run to, it had to be him? I secretly wished it was Itachi, he'd make me feel better. I parted my mouth to ask him where he was but then decided against it in embarrassment. Itachi didn't have time to be hanging out with me. He was probably spending quality time with Sasuke and his family or training. Plus, he didn't need more weight on his shoulders trying to help me with my problems. And besides, like any _normal _person, they probably think it strange that a seven year old wants to talk to them even though they've only me twice. By now, Shisui was staring curiously at me and silently urging me to say what I was going to say with his eyes.

"Never mind, sorry for bumping into you."

He blinks, surprised as I side-stepped him to continue on my way, wherever I was going I hadn't decided yet. I pleaded secretly for him to leave me alone. There was just too many things going on and I really didn't need him right now to add to my already terrible day. I kept my eyes pointed downwards, hoping that he'd get the idea I wanted to be left alone today. Unfortunately, it seemed he did not for I was suddenly face-planted in his stomach again. And let me tell you, it's not as soft as you might think to cushion my face. He had rock hard abs, nothing short of my expectations. After all, he was a ninja, shouldn't he be physically trained to the fittest as the human body could be?

He gave me another one of his creepy chuckles as he once again pulled me away, "Ahaha, you were going to ask where Itachi was, weren't you?"

I groaned at him.

"I was right! Sorry, Itachi's away on a mission right now. But don't worry, you can tell this Nii-chan everything!"

As I was about to quite rudely tell him to leave me alone, something interrupted me. _Rrrrrrr. _I immediately slapped my hands onto my face to hide my red cheeks. Couldn't my stomach pick a better time to tell me I was hungry?

Shisui started laughing uncontrollably which made me want to hide under some rock for all eternity. Mulling over that thought a second time, I decided I better actually go do that. I spun on my heel quickly with my face still buried in my hands. Before I could start running away however, I felt Shisui pinch the back of my shirt and keep me in place. I tried tugging against his grip but he was significantly stronger. When I stopped struggling, he spun me back around so I would face him again.

"Hey now, no need to get so embarrassed. Let's get you some food, what do you say?"

Shisui pried my hands from my reddened face and took one of my hands in his to lead me to a nearby tea house. It served the best mochi and rice crackers, Shisui adamantly bragged about during our short trek. I didn't pay any attention to his bragging though. Instead, I felt comforted by the warmth in his hand. It was soothing, making me lean into his touch unconsciously. I didn't even mind the calluses he had on the insides of his palm. Perhaps it was because his presence was soft and relaxed which was infectious. Or maybe it was because of his kindness that made me have a little more faith in this world – that not all _shinobi_ were bad. Although, I had already deemed Itachi and my parents to be "good" _shinobi_. It was nice to know there were others.

He was the one who had told me all those words a week ago. About how _shinobi_ use their weapons and jutsu to protect people, how I could follow my own beliefs while simultaneously walking the path of a _shinobi – _I didn't need to _kill _if I didn't want to. Was I wrong to stereotype ninjas as killers? Frightening to think about, the chance Hirana and Asahi actually killed someone in their line of active duty was extremely high. _But_ they did so to protect the village – to eventually have children one day that may never see the horrors they've seen.

I realized I had somehow wandered close to the border of the Uchiha clan territory and thus that had increased my chances in bumping into Shisui. He led me deeper into the territory happily swinging my hand back and forth but I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable remembering what Tou-chan said about the Uchiha clan not liking our family. The reason I had yet to uncover, but Shisui and Itachi were still kind to me. Itachi was the only friend I had, or someone I considered to be as close as possible to a friend. Though I wasn't sure if Itachi considered me a friend much to my dismay. I really wanted to be considered friends with him. I trusted Itachi whole-heartedly. He was kind despite his demeanor and sincere, something I felt not a lot of _shinobi_ I came in contact were. Shisui, on the other hand, I could sense was sincere too like Itachi but his annoyingness outweighed his good qualities greatly.

"It's good isn't it?" Shisui chuckled as I reached for my second mochi.

I nodded happily. I didn't know if the mochi was genuinely really good or I was just starving from being unconscious all week. They were chewy little rice balls filled with sweet red bean goodness. The coolness of the sticky rice made it a great snack for my dry, hot throat and the sweetness melted any bitterness I had left in my mouth from thinking about my nightmare. _So good!_ Smiling to myself, I went for my third mochi and plucked the last one off the plate.

Shisui giggled at me again while he sipped his green tea. "You're just like Itachi. He has a sweet tooth too."

I pouted, "Who doesn't like sweets?"

"Well, Sasuke hates them. Hard to imagine he's related to Itachi who literally goes crazy for dango."

I nearly choked on my mochi as I imagined Itachi "literally going crazy for dango." It was a weird scene with everything going wrong. Somehow any sort of face other than a stoic one on Itachi was creepy and unnatural.

"There's that smile. Now that you're done with your mochi, will you tell me what's wrong?"

I twitched. Was there any way of getting out of this? I thought about running again but I've had a 0/3 success rate of escaping from Shisui. Not much of surprise. He was a _shinobi_. I would be worried for his life if he wasn't able to catch me. Even my brothers could catch me easily in a game of tag. Those speedy little devils with their stupid _shinobi _speed. Perhaps I should just tell him the truth? Thinking about the scenarios I had imagined earlier about getting tortured and killed, I thought against doing so.

"I don't trust you." I murmured.

It was his turn to choke. He immediately set down his hot cup of tea and began pounding his chest in hopes of getting the liquid dislodged from his esophagus. When he calmed down he parted his mouth to let out a string of complaints, "I bought you mochi and you still don't trust me? I'm Itachi's best friend, does that make it any better? You trust Itachi-kun don't you? I am so hurt, Miyuna-chan." He hung his head in fake-hurt. I blinked owlishly at him. He was a strange one alright. How is Itachi related to him?

When I didn't respond, Shisui gave a sigh "Well fine, if you don't want to talk I can't make you." I thought he dropped the conversation until he asked, "Have you given any thought to becoming a ninja, though?"

I flinched at the sudden change in topic. We were really going through all the topics I wanted to avoid today. "Why do you so persistently want me to become a ninja?"

"It's cool isn't it, protecting your friends and family, the village?"

"Yes, but there are other parts that aren't cool," I mumbled.

He started laughing again which made me mildly annoyed again. This was why I couldn't trust him – he laughs at everything I say. I shot him a glare which quickly shut him up but that annoying cheesy grin of his was still plastered on his face. I'd do almost anything to wipe that off. Doesn't he understand that this was a serious and difficult topic for me?

"Come with me for a second." Shisui reached out his hand, offering me to take it. I contemplated running away again even though I had no chance of doing so successfully, but he might actually get the clue this time that I didn't want to be anywhere with him. On the other hand, he did pay for my mochi.

"Fine," I agreed and cautiously took his hand.

_Whoosh_. My surroundings suddenly warped from the small teahouse we were in to a panoramic view of the entire village. Dizzily, I stumbled around to get the feeling back in my legs. My stomach was doing flips and for a moment I thought the three mochi I had eaten were going to find their way out of my stomach. I heard Shisui give another chuckle from behind and two hands rested on my shoulders to help steady me. We were on top of a building which had these weird pillars curving up towards the sky like a strange architectural design based off a blooming lotus flower.

"It takes a few times to get used to but it's pretty cool huh? It's the Body Flicker Jutsu, my specialty!"

He scooped his hands underneath my armpits but when he attempted to lift me up I screeched in pain. In surprise, he immediately let go and stared at me in confusion.

His words turned soft with genuine concern. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. Guess I'm not that good with children."

I rubbed the inner parts of my shoulder, willing the pain to recede. Thinking about what had possible hurt so bad, I realized that Kakashi must've bruised me from his grip. That bastard. I was going to get him for this. Even if it meant tattle tailing this to my parents. Tou-chan would surely spit a mud ball at him. I've seen my father show Jomei and Tobari the Mud Ball Jutsu countless times in the backyard. At first I thought they were having a mud fight to which I was rather jealous about how they failed to include me. Ever since the twins were born and had obdurately begged about becoming ninjas, Tou-chan seemed to spend less and less time with me. I never took myself as the jealous type. Even if they were getting completely dirtied by mud like pigs – cute, little pigs I remind you – I wanted to join in. And then I watched my father hack up a mud ball after he weaved together two hand signs. Oh, it was a jutsu. Dejectedly, I had escaped back into the house before they could catch me spying.

"Let me see," Shisui spoke as he suddenly grabbed a hold of my shirt. In a swift motion, he pulled the hem of my shirt up to reveal the bruises where Kakashi's thumb had squeezed earlier. I squeaked in horror as my cheeks flushed red; I imagine they nearly matched the redness of a cooked lobster. The cold breeze hit my bare chest and I immediately reacted.

A screech left his mouth when I stomped on his foot. "OUCH!" He immediately let go of my shirt and went to grab his leg in pain. "What was that for?"

"You can't just pull a girl's shirt up!"

"Why not? You have nothing to hide yet." He joked, earning him a kick to the shin which didn't faze him much. "It's true, your chest is as flat as a–"

I went to push him. "Don't finish that sentence, you pedophile!"

He shot me a grin before disappearing, leaving only the tickle of his shirt at my fingertips. "You got to be faster than that to catch Shisui Uchiha the Teleporter!" His voice proclaimed from behind.

I spun around fast but he had already disappeared before I even had the chance to see him. Frustrated, I growled as I made attempts to grab him each time he flashed into my line of sight. It was turning into a game of tag, only it was unfair on so many levels. I was already bad at this game to begin with. The twins and I played it all the time. Well, we used to until recently. They began to complain I was too easy to catch and too easy to evade whenever I was "it." Most times now, Tou-chan would make a clone of himself so that they could play with him while he worked or did other things upon their urgings. It honestly pained me. They went from idolizing me, to biting me or kicking me, to being somewhat nice to me, and now to utter disappointed in me. I sighed internally.

Shisui was having a great time; I could tell from all his maniac like laughter. Meanwhile, I was growing increasingly more annoyed as the game went on. What I would give to notch down his ego!

I stopped running and the afterimages of Shisui merged into one solid copy. He immediately began teasing, "Giving up already? Aww come on, I'm having so much fun!"

Like a child refusing to stop playing, Shisui flashed away again and the afterimages started appearing once more. I stood still, pouting as Shisui kept wanting to play. Seriously, he was such a child.

"Come on Miyuna-chan, you won't catch me if you stay still!"

The only possible way of winning was if I knew the Clone Jutsu or perhaps the Mud Ball Jutsu. Both just so happened to be techniques that were a part of the lifestyle I wanted to stay as far away as possible. Not to mention, I had no fucking clue how those techniques worked. I gave a sigh and then instinctively went to scratch my stomach. It was really itchy now that I stopped running around. My earlier annoyance had distracted me momentarily. It had been there since I bumped into Shisui but only when he started flashing around did it begin to become a little uncomfortable. It wasn't that it hurt or anything, just an itch that pokes at you almost like it's shyly trying to get your attention.

_There! There! He's right there!_

A little voice seemed to tell me in my head. It was like my stomach was speaking to me. My instincts reacted and suddenly I lashed forward with my hand. My hands wiped at the empty space, but it quickly met the feeling of cotton. It was like everything happened in slow motion then. First Shisui's chest appeared, followed by his arms and legs, and finally his head. Sheer disbelief spread across my face as Shisui's eyes widened in surprise too.

"You caught me?" His words were full of disbelief. "How?"

"Um, luck?"

"Aw come on! You're not telling me anything today!" Shisui whined, his back hunched over in distraught.

"I'm serious, it was luck."

He continued to whine. "No one has ever caught me!"

What a sore loser, I scoffed internally. The itch in my stomach had gone away as soon as I caught him, now it resided obediently with only a small, constant feeling – easy to ignore but still present. I didn't exactly know how I caught him myself. Maybe it was luck. What are the chances that my instinct just knew where he was going to appear?

"Wait, are you a natural sensor?"

I blinked owlishly at him. "A what?" My words reflecting my innocent lack of knowledge.

"Close your eyes." He commanded.

"Why?"

"We're playing another game!"

"No," I stated flatly.

"Just do it."

"No."

"I'll buy you more mochi before you go home."

"Fine."

He snickered quietly behind his hand, but I heard him. "No hesitance at all."

Complying with his strange request, I thought about his reasons for wanting me to close my eyes. Was he going to toss me off the rooftop? Was he that much of sore loser? He better not because I would reincarnate again and make his life miserable. Or perhaps turn into a ghost and haunt him that way. Suddenly, the itch was back in my stomach. I went to go scratch it. I didn't know why I bothered. It was always a phantom itch – something I couldn't quite get to since it felt like it was on the inside of my stomach.

Shisui's voice spoke. "Can you walk towards me without opening your eyes? Concentrate really hard."

Too easy, I thought to myself as I walked in the direction of his voice. Maybe this is a trust exercise? On a very dangerous scale? If I happened to topple over the railing on the building's rooftop I needed to trust that he would come save me? He wouldn't let that happen to me – to fall to my death. Right?

I cautiously walked towards the direction where I heard Shisui's voice come from. Just in case, I had my arms in front of me to cushion myself from anything I might run into. There were only two things I could run into, luckily. Either Shisui or the railing. My hands met the coldness of a metal pole. Confused, I turned around and walked blindly in a circle. I could've sworn Shisui's voice came from here.

"Are you still here?" I tried calling out.

"Try to find me how you did before, not by my voice. Just focus, you can do it."

_Well Stomach, you better start talking again._

Soon enough, my stomach was _communicating_ with me like it was saying "warmer" or "colder" with each direction I was taking. The feeling in my stomach would buzz stronger if I moved in the right direction towards Shisui. I knew this was the case because I remembered how the itchiness would get stronger whenever I got closer to ninjas on the streets and less noticeable when I moved away. Huh, I had my own drowsing machine inside me. And, it worked perfectly as to detect the _thing_ I wanted to avoid. Quite convenient. I guess Fate was finally helping me out here.

_DING. DING. DING!_

"Gah!" Hadn't realized he was that close. Arms wrapped around me to prevent me from bouncing back onto my butt as a result of face-planting in his rock hard abs again. When I peeled open my eyes he had a goofy grin spread wide across his face. He went to pat my head but I quickly swatted his hand away. Like a wilting flower, he pouted and hunched over at my rejection. The depression state he was in didn't last long. As soon as I pulled away he reverted back to his usual overly ecstatic self.

"As I thought, you're a natural sensor!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I don't know what that means."

"You can sense chakra."

"Can't all ninjas do that?"

My tone was skeptical. He was trying to say my ability to avoid ninjas was actually a ninja technique. That's the most ironic thing I've ever heard.

"Well no, not without training. Have you had any ninja training?"

Fate definitely hates me. She really hates me.

"No, and I never will."

"Why don't you want to become a shinobi again?"

I grew quiet. The answer was obvious to me. I was scared. Ninjas were killers. But I never wanted to fully admit that out loud. Because that would mean I lived with two murderers and two future murderers and I was related to them. Even if they had done it to protect others, I couldn't fathom doing it myself. The ninjas they killed; they're the same. They just wanted to protect their children. Their families. Their village. They weren't bad people.

"You know, ninjas aren't just killers."

I flinched. He was spot on. Was I just that easy to read? I need to work on my poker face in front of the mirror again.

"Do you know what the Will of Fire is?" Before I could respond that I did not, he continued. "It stems from the idea that love is the root to peace. It's something that has been passed down from generation to generation of leaf shinobi starting from Konoha's creator, the First Hokage. The theory is that the entire village is like a large family unit and every Konoha shinobi with the Will of Fire loves, believes, cherishes, and fights to protect the village, as previous generations has done before them. It's what gives the leaf shinobi the strength to continue fighting against all odds, to sacrifice themselves, and even to kill if need be."

A sense of déjà vu was going through me. Basically when my father had given his guilt-trip, he was trying to explain the Will of Fire, only he did so in a rather bloody way with too many unnecessary gore details. The Will of Fire concept was nice. Very honorable. Except one thing. It was self-contradicting in a way.

"If love is the root to peace. Then killing is the root to hatred. Though the intentions are good on our side, to the enemy however, hatred is bred. It's a never ending cycle of avenging each other. That's how war breaks out."

There I go again, speaking my mind. I wanted to slap myself. What kind of seven year old speaks like that? I needed to be careful about my words. Very few people knew about my maturity and advancement in thinking. It was only my parents and my brothers (they don't pay attention anyways). Maybe Itachi caught on. Tou-chan once called me out on it. He was suspicious about the things I knew but he hadn't questioned me much about it. However, he warned that I needed to control myself, think before I speak. To someone else, it was an incentive for them to take advantage of my intelligence. I didn't understand what he was eluding to. After that old man with the "x" shaped scar visited our house I comprehended that people like him wanted to use my intelligence or in other words wanted to make me ninja.

"You're secretly a genius aren't you?"

"Um no!" I exclaimed, trying to refute him.

Unexpectedly, Shisui shoved his hand on my head. "Ahaha, you're just like Itachi!"

I buckled under the weight. "Get off!"

"I think you'd make a great kunoichi. Don't you want to protect your parents and your younger brothers, if not the entire village?"

My heart panicked when I heard his question about protecting my family. For a moment I thought he knew about my nightmare somehow. As he continued his small speech, I breathed out in relief, finding out that he was only saying that because of the Will of Fire concept he had explained earlier on. _Phew._

"– Someone who is kind and always thinks about achieving peace without violence. I think we need more people like that. Like you."

XXX

"Here are the mochi I promised. Don't eat them all at once you'll get indigestion."

After the encouraging speech Shisui gave (so much better than Asahi's guilt-trip), he got us off the roof with his Body Flicker Jutsu. He offered to walk me home but I declined politely. I didn't want him to know where I lived. I could see him popping in for random visits if I did which was the last thing I needed to happen. Keeping his promise, Shisui took me to a nearby teahouse to buy mochi.

I smiled happily as he handed me the box of mochi.

"Can you get home safely?"

"According to the Konoha yearly statistics, the percentage of crime in the village is incredibly low due to the Uchiha Police Force. I think I'll be fine."

He left out a boisterous laugh, "Is that your way of reassuring me? By using what you learned in school about my clan?"

As he left to go his separate way, I shyly called out to him again. "Do you think I'll be able to catch up if I entered the ninja academy?"

He paused, pressing a finger to his chin as if to signify he was in deep thought. "Let's see, you're secretly a genius and both your parents are two of the best shinobi in their fields. I believe you'll have no trouble at all. But, if you're feeling the need for some extra help you can always come find me. Just use your chakra sensing ability and sniff me out."

Giving me one last smile and a pat on the head, he weaved together his hands for his specialty jutsu. "I believe in you so you should believe in yourself. After all, you're _exceptional._"

**AN: Phew. I don't know how my chapters have gotten exponentially longer. Sorry for the lateness on this chapter, I didn't really know where I wanted to go. At first (prepare yourself for some backstage information spoilers…), I wanted to make Miyuna half-Uchiha and half-Senju. As you probably know, Shimewari means (well meant to, I had to use google-translate to put the words together) "end of darkness/fighting." And I also originally planned Asahi's death with the Uchiha massacre but then my story took a rather dark path and I didn't want to go there. So basically, I scratched everything and went back to my earlier chapters to take out all those small hints (you probably didn't even know) that I left you guys about Miyuna's possible bloodline/lineage (along with fixing some grammatical errors). I kind of wanted her to be plain and simple but at the same time head-strong and protective. I'm really trying not to make Miyuna a "perfect" or "martyr" character or what many call a "Mary-Sue." I love writing this story and developing Miyuna, but it's hard. So extremely hard not to turn her into the perfect character who solves every thing. But then I thought about how Naruto's character was developed. He definitely has some "Mary-Sue" components as does every character because we, as authors, simply want the best for our characters. They are some extension of ourselves. Sorry, I got really psychological. Hahahaha! Anyways, as an apology for the lateness, you can expect more interaction between Shisui, Itachi, Sasuke, and Miyuna and the next chapter. And, I'm going to write super-fast! No promises though.**

**Thanks for being so supportive! Please leave a comment, I love reading them because they encourage me to write more!**


	8. Everyone Is After Me, I Swear

**OMG OVER 60 FOLLOWS AND 40 LIKES AND I'M ONLY ON CHAPTER 7?**

**Thanks so much for the comments! Please leave more! I love reading them. They're really encouraging!**

**XXX**

**Chapter Seven – Everyone Is After Me, I Swear**

To be or not to be? I had impulsively asked Shisui whether or not he thought I'd do well in the ninja academy. It seemed my resolve against ninjas was burning down. But could you blame me? With Tenka's death and my nightmare, I was really shaken up in realizing my parents could disappear any day. And it would be completely normal. What about my brother's? If my parents were gone, who would protect them? Who would take care of them? That responsibility obviously fell on me. I could pull the reincarnation card on myself and make myself sever ties with them, but I couldn't continue living like that. Knowing that they were my family in _this _world, would I be able to just shrug them off? My main goal in this world was to live. To survive. I had already died once. Don't I deserve to live a long happy life? But, living with guilt, living in fear, was that truly how I wanted to live? Would that make me happy? A long life would be meaningless if I spent all of it running away or throwing someone else the short end of the stick just so I could continue living.

On one hand, ninjas were the number one occupation in the village. That was a no-brainer since Konoha _is _a military stronghold. They earn the most money.

_No. No! _I can't be a ninja simply because I want to be well off. The amount of money was surely given because the occupation was a life-risk every day.

And even if I became a ninja, would I be strong enough to protect my family from what _that man_ said was coming my way? How far away was this _bad thing?_ Tomorrow? A month? A year? What if never? What if that dream was never real despite how everything played out? I was a mere little girl. Okay, with ninja sensing abilities that I should really consider imputing towards my "avoid ninjas" self-imposed rules. I nearly puke at the sight of blood. I don't know how to throw those kunai or shuriken weapons ninjas typically used. And I especially did not have those mumbo jumbo magic tricks up my sleeves.

I could become strong.

Even that thought made me doubtful. Could I actually be strong? Would I ever be _strong enough_?

The other hand, I was an adult in a child's body basically. Though the memories of my old life and old world are fuzzy. Somehow, some of the knowledge I learned from books or from my school natural came to me – a feeling of nostalgia in a sense, like I've already seen and memorized this knowledge. I was "smart" or more accurately, advanced. I'm sure I could find a suitable job perhaps as a merchant or– Oh, who am I kidding? Merchants require the ability to be mobile all throughout the nations, making them the easiest target for any ninja to swoop down to steal from or worse, KILL.

_Gah, there is no escaping!_

I'm so frightened. Can I take a weapon and drive it through someone's heart?

A scenario popped into mind and it was not pretty. What if Asahi was being held hostage and about to get killed? What if I had the chance to save my father if I drove a knife through the man's back? I simply didn't have confidence in myself to do such a thing even if the scenario rises. There were so many parameters. The man could turn around and stab me thus ending my once again short life. Or, I could successfully kill the man and thus ending his short life. What if that man was just following orders? What if he was someone's father as well?

Sympathy. Empathy. Pity. Guilt. _Fear._ All emotions a shinobi are absolutely not allowed to have. And, I am sure there are more. But they were all emotions I treasured as being human, as being me. They were emotions that made me detest ninjas whenever they were missing from them.

"What is troubling you, my dear?" A gruff old voice brought me from my thoughts. I halted instinctively which was good for I would have run straight into this old man who was smoking in my path and squished my box of mochi. He had a salt and pepper goatee and some forming wrinkles around his mouth and eyes. But nevertheless, despite all his features including his gruff old voice, he was emanating kindness.

He was a stranger, albeit a very familiar one. But I still hadn't gotten a clue as to who he was. Should I blow him off or should I talk to him? What would I talk to him anyways? Like I'd ever just complain or rant all of my troubles off to a stranger. I didn't even feel comfortable doing that with my new parents who I have had almost eight years to adjust to now.

"Um, my father told me not to talk to strangers," I admitted to him awkwardly as I attempted to side-step him. He was very kind, but I felt better being left to my thoughts.

A look of surprise passed his face before he burst out laughing. "Oh is that so? Why that is very good advice." He spoke. "Let me introduce myself then. My name is Hiruzen Sarutobi, what is your name?"

Finding it rude to not answer, I stopped and replied with my name. He was a kind old man, unlike that senile one that visited our house a long time ago when the twins were first born. If he was being so polite, there was no reason for me not to be. Besides, I'd rather my parents didn't catch the wind of me being rude to strangers.

"That is a fine name. Miyuna Shimewari. Do you know what your name means?"

"_What is the name they gave you?"_

_Quizzically, I found it strange the way he words his question._

"_Miyuna Shimewari," I answered after a few seconds had passed._

_His smirk twisted. Now his lips resembled something akin to a smile._

"_The end of darkness, how fitting." The man said more to himself than to me._

"The end of darkness?" I tried, expecting it to be wrong.

"Yes that is correct. Your last name means the end of darkness. But do you know what your first name means?"

I shook my head. But curiously waited for his reply. I never thought about what my first name meant. I quite liked it. I thought it was pretty though I didn't always feel this way about my name. When I was first born (or rather reborn), I couldn't remember my name from my before-life – I still can't – along with everything (just another reminder). And, when I first realized my name was Miyuna Shimewari I wasn't too happy about it. It meant that everything was real around me. I was no longer who I was before. It was something that branded me as someone else.

"Your mother had a boisterous and fiery personality when she was a child. Nowadays, it seems having three kids has cooled her down quite a lot. As for your father, he used to be bit of a mean and strict person, not at all what he's like today. They wanted you to grow up unlike themselves when they were children so they stuck together 'Mi' which means beautiful and 'Yuna,' gentle heart, in hopes that their daughter would not only be beautiful but kind to all those she came in contact with."

I think I've come to a new awe about my name. Apparently not only was it pretty but it had a good meaning behind it.

"Wait, you know my parents?" I snapped out of my reverie of goggling over my name internally when I realized he mentioned my parents. Geez, I truly think I'm totally underestimating how famous my parents are.

The old man left out a hearty laugh, "Hirana and Asahi, right? I know everyone in the village because I consider them all to be a part of my family. A family that I would die for to protect."

"You're a retired shinobi?" I quizzically asked despite that stab of pain going through my chest again. Another one who declared they would go to the deaths if it meant they could protect someone. The ninjas in this world were sure proud and heroic, not even a sliver of fear in their voices. Meanwhile, I want to be able to protect my loved ones but I'm still quivering in the dark and rolling in selfishness about my own life.

"Oh I'm not retired–" he paused to let out a puff of smoke from his pipe and to chuckle to himself as he looked upwards towards the clouds in the sky. He seemed nostalgic of something. "Well I am a retired shinobi but at the same time I'm not exactly."

Well, that was a sketchy answer. It was really no answer at all. He must've seen my look of "are you for real?" Another smoke ring blew upwards followed by another bout of laughter. He has definitely been laughing at me the entire time. Ugh, it was really bothering me now that I can't place where I'd seen this man before. Perhaps he was my grandfather?

No, that wouldn't make sense. From what I knew, we had no other relatives. I had made the mistake in asking about my grandparents and possible uncles and aunts once. I found out that both my parents were orphans early on. Asahi lost both his parents when he was eight; they were killed in action during a high-risk mission. He had an older brother and an older sister who were twins and they had both died when he was barely four years old, also on a mission. Talking about his family made him really upset so I decided not to press him about if I had any living relatives who were farther from us in the family tree.

On my mother's side, she wouldn't explain much. She was an only child and her father had died when her mother was six months pregnant with her. Due to depression and sickness after birth, my grandmother died a year after giving birth to my mother. That was all she was willing to give me and I didn't feel like pressing for more. To cheer me up, Hirana explained I had a godmother. She is currently off exploring the world and is an incredible lady from what I could tell in Hirana's crazy stories about her.

"I've known you for some time now, Miyuna-chan, since you were born actually. And, I've known for a long time that you hate the shinobi way, would you care to tell me? It's fine if you don't wish to do so, but I'd very much like you to release that burden you have in your heart. Even if it helps for me to share that burden with you, I can carry it. I'm not quite out of commission yet despite my old age."

His laughter had died down long before I finished my train of thought, pondering about his relation to my parents and how he seemed so familiar. I flinched when he began talking to me again, this time about what had plagued me since the day I found out what kind of world I was in. My heart raced and my hands got clammy. He was so serious and that knowing look in his eyes made me think he knew all my secrets even my reincarnation. He couldn't know. He couldn't _have known._

I wasn't ready for another talk. Shisui's words already took everything out of me. I've had enough dealings with _shinobi_ recently to last me, what I hope was forever. Perhaps it was just all the ninja encounters I've avoided in the past catching up too. Oh god, everything is just– Why did I have to be reincarnated? Why couldn't I rest in peace?

"Miyuna-chan, calm yourself. If you do not wish to share, nothing will happen. I won't get mad." His hand pressed onto my shoulder, willing me to calm myself. I hadn't realized I was having another one of my panic attacks.

I muttered an apology. I hadn't meant to go into a panic attack of course. It was just that the stress of everything felt like a ton of bricks in my chest. Had it really almost been eight years since I died? Since I was given a new life? That was a lot of time to adjust and accept and yet I was still so against accepting. I loved my new family. And, it was hard to miss something that you knew was there but couldn't remember anything. But I still felt so empty here. What was my purpose in living again?

"_I created you to become my tool, to help me change this world for the better."_

"Let's have a trial period then, Miyuna-chan. I want you to go to the ninja academy for one week. If you don't like it then you can back out, if you do like it then you may stay and I'll even help you catch up myself."

I had gone into la-la-land again and had to be jolted out by the start of conversation. And, it was not a conversation I wanted to continue or agree to. There was no freaking way I was going to be a ninja. Sure, Shisui was all nice and heroic sounding with his speech, but I wasn't ready yet. I wanted to think about it. I wanted to gauge my options and the pros and cons of my choices. No, forget weighing both sides. The biggest con was hanging right in front of me. DEATH. I would have to kill. Someone would always be after my life. What happened to my goal of living? Great, now I'm back to contemplating what I want to do in my second life. What was even my goal in my first life? Wow, I was getting really philosophical and psychological right now.

"No."

He made a choking sound which made me jump to his aid. I reached up and patted him on the back like what my parents did to me and my brothers whenever we choked on food. I paled thinking about how my answer contributed to his state. What if he died and I caused it? I hadn't meant to. I was simply being honest. When did honesty become a bad thing?

I breathed in relief when he started laughing once his coughing fit was over, "You are quite straightforward with your answers. Well never mind that, I wasn't particularly asking. If you refuse to take my offer I suppose I'll just have you thrown in jail."

"What! You can't do that?" I stared up at his petite frame incredulously.

No verbal reply was given, only a quirk of his lips into a smirk. Before I knew it, a puff of smoke popped behind me to reveal one of those ANBU ninjas. He donned the same porcelain mask and flak jacket as Kakashi, only his mask seemed to be a cat rather than the crow one that Kakashi had. There wasn't much features I could go off of. A brown tuft of hair, darker than Asahi's and the twins'; big guns to most likely match the rest of his super muscled body that I couldn't see from the flak jacket protecting his chest, back, and legs.

And that familiar chakra that twirled inside of him. Musty yet dewy like a forest. Who was this?

"Take this one away."

I let out a squeak in terror when the old man gave the ANBU his order. Surely they were bluffing. They couldn't do that. But still a strike of fear went down my spine. It didn't help that I didn't know how politics or laws worked in this world. Could they do that? Send people to jail without an obvious crime?

I tried dodging the ANBU's hands as they reached out to snatch me. He caught me easily and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Oh no, what if this was for real?

"TENZO-SAN!" I screeched out and flailed around on his shoulder. Yes, that was his name! The one who had dropped by our house a few weeks ago and I had gotten a whiff of that forest feel of his, but at the time I didn't know what I was sensing or feeling. Whether it was a figment of my imagination or his scent. However, I had heard my father call him that. He didn't have the mask on, but the chakra and hair matched this person's features.

"How do you know my name?" His voice was a tad muffled by his mask but I could still catch his surprised tone. The tightness he had on my waist lightened up as he shifted me against his left hip. This guy was definitely better at handling kids than Kakashi was. Had to admit that this was actually quite comfortable.

"You came by our house three weeks ago to talk to Tou-chan." I sped through my words, still quite dazed by what happened.

"I came by without my uniform, how can you tell?"

"Your hair and your voice." I lied easily. Technically it wasn't a lie, they both played a part in helping me pinpoint his identity. "Speaking of which, I am telling him you tried kidnapping me."

His arms flinched under me. "I got it him," I giggled internally to myself.

"Oh fine, you win." He muttered in defeat and placed me gently back on my feet.

Turns out having a pretty famous father was convenient for blackmail purposes.

"Very impressive, Miyuna-chan. I was trying to scare you but it seemed you caught on to my tricks." The old man sighed and breathed out a puff of smoke from his pipe. "Well, that's enough of that. You're dismissed Tenzo, thanks for playing along."

"No, I had fun." The ANBU chuckled, patting my head while he was doing so. "You have quite the chakra sensing skills at your age, but your deception needs a lot of work. See you next time, Yuna-chan."

In a pop of smoke, he vanished just like how he arrived, leaving me gaping at the space where he once stood. He knew I was lying. My face turned fuchsia, that's embarrassing, thinking all this time I was really good a lying when I wasn't. Curse those ninja skills! I was definitely going to tell my father about him trying to kidnap me today.

"I think that's enough fun for today. I'm late for the entrance ceremony at the ninja academy. Your parents and brothers are there, aren't they? Let's go together." Salty from being played with, I reluctantly took the hand he offered. It was tough with calluses just like I expected from an old shinobi like him.

"You really do know everything."

"Of course, after all, I am the Third Hokage."

The old man said what?

"Wait what? You're the Hokage?"

He chuckled down at me. "Why yes, didn't you know when we first met?" Each word of his was laced with sarcasm.

"No, that's why I asked!"

His laugh was getting annoying now. "I thought you knew."

"Aren't you supposed to be perceptive, you know being a shinobi and the Hokage?"

"Ah, I've grown too old."

"Then you should retire!"

"Oh, but who will I leave my beloved village to?"

"I don't know, but you better find a replacement before you grow too senile!"

"Are you sure that you should be so disrespectful towards the Hokage?"

"I've lost all respect for you the moment you played that nasty joke on me!"

He went into a coughing fit again. This time worse than before, with added wheezing and a hunched over position from the force of his coughs. I started panicking again.

"GAH! SOMEONE HELP!"

"I'm just kidding."

I had the sudden urge to kick his butt, even if he was the Hokage. Seriously, why were all these ninjas gaining up on me lately?


	9. A Glimpse of the Future

**AN: WOOT! I'm on a roll. Well actually I typed up nearly 10,000 words for the last chapter because I didn't know how I wanted to proceed so I had like 4 different versions. But at least I was able to take some of it and move it to this next chapter for a quick second publish. Thanks for all your lovely support!**

**You know, I actually don't like stories with a lot of OC's. I mean I'm not saying those stories aren't good but I just have some sort of annoyance against them (don't know why exactly, maybe too much trouble of memorizing new characters?). But haha, I have quite a lot of OC's in my story so I guess I went against that. I'm trying to pull them out of Miyuna's life as much as I can so that I can really develop Miyuna since she is the main character. So I'm thinking after this chapter, Wakaro and Ren will probably disappear for a long time. And maybe have Hirana and Asahi be mentioned only briefly along with her brothers when Miyuna grows up a bit more.**

**XXX**

**Chapter Eight – A Glimpse of the Future**

When I arrived at the ninja academy with the Hokage holding my hand, everyone stared at me. So much unneeded attention. I flushed my usual red color and stalked nervously over to my parents who gave me hugs and kisses along with the expected whispers of "I'm so glad you're okay." Jomei and Tobari were up front close to the podium where the Hokage stalked up to give his speech. They seemed to be already conversing with kids around them, making friends so easily. They didn't quiet down until the Hokage coughed into his hand to subtly demand the children in front of him to pay attention. Meanwhile, my mother pulled me into her lap to sit since there was barely any room on the benches for me to sit with all the parents there for the inauguration of their children into the ninja academy. Bleh, I hadn't gotten anything special for my inauguration into the civilian school. I sense some favoritism going on. But honestly what did that matter? Obviously this was a military village and thus military _stuff_ was more _prized._ It seemed this whole world revolved around that idea too.

"Why were you with the Hokage?" My father whispered to me as he petted my hair. The Hokage's speech was still going on in the background and I was very tempted to shush him about listening just to avoid his interrogation. He probably get offended and tease me about how I was actually interested in ninja business for once.

"I met him on my walk." I whispered back.

"Shush you two!" Hirana lightly hit her husband's shoulder and gave me a pinch on my arm.

"Ow," the two of us whined and went to rub our respective spots of injury.

We shot each other looks – my father giving me an amused look while I gave him a pouting face. Another hiss came from my mother and we were forced to obediently turn our heads forward to listen to the Hokage's speech.

"It doesn't matter what you do, if you live and die as you like. However, no matter what road you end up taking, remember to protect the people that are precious to you. Find strength in your friends and teammates and especially yourself." It was hard to believe this was the joking old man I had encountered earlier. His voice was so clear and loud, so powerful. Guess he was the Hokage after all. There was something that said a good leader was someone who knew how to separate being a friend and being in charge.

I sighed depressingly at the Hokage's words. While I was having fun or rather being scared half to death by the Hokage's mean joke, I had forgotten what I was struggling with before. I shook my head furiously, let's forget about it for now. I could think about this later.

His speech was short. Yada yada, the ordinary "work hard, train hard, become splendid ninja." After the Hokage's speech we were all dismissed from our seats to converse with the other students and parents – kind of like an after party. Some parents chose to talk to the teachers and some tried to make small talk with the Hokage.

Each newly admitted student was given a manila folder filled with all their necessary information – classroom, homeroom teacher, etc – after we were all dismissed. After the twins received their information they came running towards the three of us. While waving their folders in the air all giddily, they jumped straight into my parents arms. Tobari into Asahi's and Jomei into Hirana's. You could definitely tell which twin my parents liked and which parent the twins liked.

"Lord Hokage!" My father bowed with Tobari still in his arms as the said man walked up to us with his hands casually folded behind us. Tobari squealed in delight at the sudden motion.

What did he want? Was he going to tell my parents I was being rude? That would be a low blow, especially for the Hokage, someone who prided himself to protect the entire village.

"Hello Mei-kun, Toba-kun, I know the two of you are going to become splendid ninjas just like your Kaa-chan and Tou-chan." He greeted the two, giving them each an affectionate rub on the head.

"Thanks Grandpa Hokage–" Jomei started the sentence only to have Tobari finish it for him. It didn't seem the two even knew they always did that. "We promise to make you proud!"

Woah, woah, woah. Grandpa Hokage? They met before? Was I the only who didn't know he was the Hokage? Was I allowed to call him Grandpa Hokage too?

I felt my cheeks burn. This day was getting worse. Actually this whole week has been sucky even though I'd been out of it for most of it. My streak of avoiding ninja was undeniably ending, I just know it.

Fortunately, the Hokage seemed to only have come over to give my brothers an encouraging compliment. He left as quickly as he came but not before giving me a pat on the head. The next couple he visited was beside us. I suppose it was his job to greet everyone and converse a bit. After all, he was getting new soldiers today.

_I can't think like that._

I left out a sigh and came out of hiding from behind my mother's long skirt. Slowly, we began leaving the ceremony behind us. The twins were still in my parents' arms and I padded in between them as we walked to our house.

"Are you okay now?" Hirana asked as she pressed a hand to the back of my head affectionately. Jomei was sitting against her opposite hip with her other arm wrapped around him.

"Yes, sorry for making you guys worry." I forced myself to smile up at my parents.

"Just try not to make that happen often." My father chuckled. "You were out for an entire week."

When we got home, we were surprised to find Kakashi casually chilling in our living room with one of Asahi's poetry books in his hands. Or, I was surprised while my parents seem the least bit bothered. I thought they would have scolded him for not being a good "babysitter."

Kakashi neatly placed the book on the coffee table and came to greet us. "I'm glad that Miyuna found her way to you guys. I wanted to escort her but she grew quite mad at me so I respected her wishes to stay behind. I bought her that box of mochi to take to the twins as a congratulations treat."

Such a freaking liar!

While he saved me from possibly an interrogation about my whereabouts where eventually I have to admit I was hanging out with an Uchiha (it was nearly impossible to lie to my father), he took in the praise and thanks my parents sent him like sponge.

_Thanks for looking after her. You didn't have to buy her mochi. You're so kind, Kakashi-kun._

Those were only some of the compliments my mother gave him. He did nothing. In fact, he bruised my armpits from gripping me too tight. And there he was, stoically and politely saying it was no problem.

Kaa-chan invited him to stay for dinner. In the beginning, his resolve was strong in not staying. But once my brothers latched onto him and my mother mentioned she would make his favorites, he agreed to stay. Broiled saury with salt. So boring and so tasteless. Why would anyone have that as their favorite dish? Grumpily, I didn't say a word of complaint during dinner in fear that I would upset my parents or worse, him. Who knows, maybe he'll actually squeeze my arms off. But I did make sure to glare at him the entirety of dinner.

"Is there something you need, Miyuna-chan?" I could imagine him raising an eyebrow beneath his mask as he wiped his fingers on a napkin. Again, he had finished his meal in a split second when I had reached to the floor to grab Jomei's dropped utensils.

"Oh nothing," I faked sweetness at him. "Just wondering if you had blimp lips or buck teeth under your mask and that's why you refuse to take off your mask at dinner."

"Miyuna Shimewari, that is rude." Hirana scolded as she cleaned the table of empty plates and utensils.

"Sorry," I muttered.

XXX

The next morning, I woke to a blank ceiling. My blank ceiling. It seemed I was lucky enough to be spared another encounter with that strange man which I was thankful for. After shuffling some clothes on, I made myself downstairs to the kitchen. Our house was strangely quiet. Not particularly normal for a Saturday morning since the twins were born.

"Good morning, Yuna-chan. Did you sleep well?"

I jumped when my father emerged from the shadows as I reached the table for breakfast. He gave a light laugh in apology for scaring me. Somehow these days I had grown more jumpy. Which was strange given that I had chakra sensing abilities. Groggily, I ate the toast and drank the milk my mother had set aside before she left with the twins.

Asahi explained that the twins wanted to learn medical ninjutsu so they were off helping our mother with rounds in the hospital. Hirana worked seven days a week with only half days on the weekends while Asahi worked only during the week with the occasional weekends. I was thankful that my parents didn't press me for answers about my nightmare or anything. Especially since I had nearly died from releasing nearly all of my chakra from what Kakashi explained.

"Yuna-chan, you realize you can talk to me about anything, right?"

I froze mid bite with my toast. Spoke too soon.

"I do." I muttered into my cup of milk.

He left out a heavy sigh and moved closer to me to brush a stray strand behind my ear. "I'm worried about you."

Another sigh left him and I could almost feel his happiness leaving him when I blatantly ignored him. A wrenching feeling hit my chest. The empty plate and glass was taken from me and placed in the sink. I really wanted to tell him about everything. Reincarnation. My fears. Everything. But I knew that would never happen. It could but the results were going to be far from pretty.

"I'm going to go play, I'll be back for lunch." I slipped out of my seat while my father's back was turned to me.

"Actually Miyuna-chan, I will be at work for the rest of the day. Something urgent has come up recently so I need to work overtime." He stopped me before I could go out the door with his still wet hands from washing my dishes. "Here, you can buy some food if you get hungry. Make sure you don't spend it all on sweets and you get something nutritious. If you want, you can go stay with your mother and brothers at the hospital."

The money he handed me was a bit crumbled and wet from his hands, but I took it appreciatively and stuffed it in my pocket. I shot him a worried glance, asking if everything was fine. His news made my heart pump a little faster. What if this was the danger that guy was telling me about?

"No worries, it is just some of our ninjas getting into a scuffle with civilians."

Slightly more relaxed now from his reassuring statement, I gave my father a hug before going out the door. "Be careful, Yuna-chan!"

Time to think about my predicament. And make sure I don't run into Shisui Uchiha. Or the Hokage for the same matter.

To be or not to be? The golden question for the past six years since I was informed about the existence of ninjas.

Somehow walking in a straight line down a road led me to a forest clearing. Possibly a training ground from the looks of it. There was three wooden poles along with straggling targets tied to tree trunks. And the most notable feature was a large cut, shiny stone that stood in the middle of the training ground – a monument of some sort. Two people were standing in front of it.

Oh, it was Wakaro and Ren. Tenka's teammates.

I was about to whip around and walk away as briskly and quietly as I could but their sniffling sobs made me uncomfortable about leaving without at least saying some comforting words. Eh, but on the other hand, sometimes sympathetic words do more harm. I groaned to myself and begrudgingly stalked over to the two, hanging my head at my lack of resistance against my softness.

"Oh Miyuna-chan," Wakaro jumped when I squeezed in between the two of them. They both wiped away their tears against the back of their sleeves to force a smile at me.

"You don't have to wipe your tears away. It's alright." I cringed. I sounded like a mother talking to her children. I was almost an entire decade younger than them. This must be an awkward situation for them. Maybe I should just abandon ship. I didn't even know where to begin comforting them, if I could even comfort them. Not many people knew of my "genius status," so it would be good if I kept everything under tabs. Honestly, I don't think people were surprised at my smartness since I was relatively normal in that aspect other than being able to pick up information more quickly. But I think people were always surprised by the words I was able to say or the thoughts I was able to come up with.

Ren spoke robotically. "It's the number one rule that shinobi don't show their emotions. Under no circumstances should one shed tears." His eyes were dry for the most part but his tear ducts were swollen red. As for Wakaro, I could see that he was trying really hard to stop his tears but they kept coming. That almost made me feel like crying myself. I wasn't much of a person to cry over stuff.

Oh, but I can't really walk away from this. This was perhaps one of the reason I would ever become a ninja – to take all of these silly rules and throw them back at whoever invented them. I stared at the shiny stone that had a bunch of names etched into it. Near the end, Tenka's name was neatly and freshly carved by the looks of it.

I spoke softly to the two. "It's disappointing to know that ninjas value the honorable way of dying to protect the ones they love, but they don't value at all mourning for the ones they failed to protect or the ones who died to protect them."

_Stop Miyuna. Stop right now before you dig yourself a grave. Someone is going to be suspicious._

I was lucky that the two didn't say anything. However, they both burst out crying again. Paling, I began to fret as this was not really the reaction I was expecting. I tried patting them their arms to calm them down but they just continued sobbing. Now I really felt like a mother. I couldn't just demand them to stop crying. I basically just told them it was okay to cry but I hadn't expected them to actually let loose. They deserved to cry. I'd prefer them to cry. But this was an awkward situation. I felt like crying too and I felt like I should be crying since I knew Tenka. At the moment, I willed myself to be strong for Wakaro and Ren. Because they needed me. Any shinobi would just tell them to stop crying. I was their only bet that would say, "Cry all you want."

After a few minutes, the two stopped. Ren stopped first and he had helped me calm down Wakaro who eventually stopped after he threw himself onto the two of us (actually more so Ren since I was too short to support him) to let out a few more sobs. "I'm sorry for calling you a brat. You're the best kid I ever babysat!" Wakaro continued sobbing.

Given any other situation, I think I would've burst out laughing at the irony of his words. Little did he know that I was actually reincarnated, if he knew then surely he'd opt to give the "best kid I ever babysat" award to someone else. I almost wanted to tell him I used to call him a brat in my head too when he came over to babysit me, but that would add more awkwardness to the situation.

"Get off us, Wakaro!" Ren growled at his teammate.

It seemed the two had cheered up after all. Wakaro wiped the rest of his tears away and finally let the two of us go.

"Let me show you another cool jutsu as thanks, Miyuna-chan." Wakaro sniffled and before I could protest adamantly he began forming hand signs.

This kid had problems. Where did he get the idea that I wanted to see another jutsu? Doesn't he remember that the first time he showed me ninja magic tricks I had fainted?

_POOF. _When the smoke cleared, a gigantic snail towered over Ren and me. I screamed and fell back onto my butt. _HOLY SHIT! _It was dripping in that slimy saliva that snails had and it was creepily moving its antennas.

"Wakaro! Don't you remember what happened last time?" Ren exclaimed, helping me up to my feet. "Are you okay, Miyuna-chan?"

"NO! WHAT IS THAT?" I screamed, clutching to Ren's waist in hopes that he had some way of protecting me from the gigantic snail.

Ren winced at my decibel of loudness. "It's just an illusion that Wakaro cast. It's the Transformation Jutsu, you should've learned it at the ninja academy." He calmly stated to me.

_POOF. _Wakaro was back to his old self and the gigantic slimy snail was gone.

I will never get used to the things that ninjas could do.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Wakaro snickered, rubbing his nose with his index finger. He was obviously pleased with himself.

I screeched at him again only to be cut off by Ren's palm sticking over my mouth. "NO!"

"Miyuna-chan, I'd like it if you don't burst my eardrums." Ren stated coolly. "Besides you two, this is the KIA stone. Be more respectful."

Grumpily, I gave him a nod to show I understood. Ren released my mouth and I promptly kicked Wakaro in the shin.

"Hey! I take back saying you were the best kid I babysat. You're still a brat!" He howled as he clutched his shin in pain.

"You're a bigger brat!"

"I liked it when you weren't able to talk!"

A hand clutched the back of my shirt and plucked me from the ground. Confusingly, I found it strange how I was suspended midair but it didn't take long for me to recognize that Ren had lifted me up by my shirt and given Wakaro a drop kick to send him rolling towards the trees.

"I told you two to quit it."

I was about to speak out that drop kicking your teammate was no way to behave in front of the KIA stone either but Ren's glare shut me up quickly.

"Uh, sorry." I gulped down my insult.

"Apology accepted."

XXX

Wakaro, Ren, and I walked around town. I tried leaving them behind but the two, more like Wakaro, insisted that they'd keep me company at the playground. Ren was dragged along out of worry that Wakaro would do something stupid and hurt me which was 100% plausible.

"Ah!" I flinched when I heard a scream. The three of us halted down our path to the playground to find a blonde boy in bright orange clothes being shoved to the ground by a grown up. A small group had gathered in the middle of the road. It seemed that the boy was stealing a mask from the mentioned grown up's stall. Everyone looked at him with fear and I could sense the nervous tension. The grasp Ren had on my hand also tightened. I was thoroughly confused. What was going on?

"What's the problem, old man?" The blonde boy screamed. "I was just looking at that mask."

Anger flashed in the merchant's eyes and he threw the mask the boy wanted at him. It hit him harshly, bouncing off his forehead before landing next to him. "You want it, just take it and promise to never come back!"

Obviously, there was something more going on here. If the boy was a thief the man wouldn't have just given him the mask demanding he just never return. Unless this was how people behaved towards thieves here – bribing them to never return. Totally unlikely and a completely useless tactic. But no one was helping the boy if the merchant was being unjustifiably violent with him.

"Why do you guys all look at me that way?" The poor boy screamed in pure anger. Grabbing the mask, he clutched it and ran, heading straight for the three of us. Before I knew it or could react to move out of the way, I was knocked onto my back with a stinging pain on my forehead and a heavy weight on top of me.

Well, for once, I wasn't the one running into people.

"Hey watch it!" I heard Wakaro rudely snort and whatever heaviness was on me was dragged off. Ren helped me to my feet and dusted me off all the while fretting over if I had gotten hurt. His words went in one ear and out the other as I stared blankly at the blonde boy's eyes. They were pretty. Really pretty. Sparkling blue, my favorite color.

It didn't take long for the boy to break eye contact with me, his face contorting in anger. He shoved Wakaro's hand off him and bolted out of sight.

"Are you okay, Miyuna-chan?" Ren asked again.

"Uh yeah, thanks." I replied back.

A hand slipped into mine again as I was quickly ushered away from the scene by Ren, "You should stay away from that boy."

Where did I hear that before?

**XXX**

**BONUS:**

"It's disappointing to know that ninjas value the honorable way of dying to protect the ones they love, but they don't value at all mourning for the ones they failed to protect or the ones who died to protect them." Kakashi muttered to himself as he stared at his friend's name on the KIA stone. "Huh. Just who is this girl?"

He was about to go comfort the two boys about their recent loss when Miyuna showed up. After all, Kakashi felt he could relate to their pain. He had lost his sensei and his two teammates when he was twelve. It was during that terrible war, and even though the Kanabi Bridge incident saved thousands of lives by contributing majorly to the end of the war, Kakashi couldn't help but wish that his team was never sent out on that mission. At least, Obito would still be alive. Perhaps Rin would too because Obito would be there to protect her where Kakashi failed.

When his old ANBU captain's daughter stiffly marched up to the two, Kakashi concealed himself behind a tree. He knew from the moment he met her that something was off about her. Not exactly in a bad way. Kakashi didn't know what to make of her, but he had to admit she was a genius of her own level. It was hard to believe she was a seven year old. The aloofness in her eyes or the anger that sometimes burned in them. It felt that sometimes he was around someone his age rather than a young child. But then again, he himself at the age of seven was remarkable too, not to blow his own horn.

The words she spoke to the two were beyond her maturity no doubt. But when the Wakaro kid had transformed into a large snail it seemed Miyuna was just like any seven year old. She had screamed and cowered into Ren's embrace.

Kakashi chuckled to himself, "Asahi-taichou, you have one interesting daughter."


	10. Great, More People To Avoid

**Chapter Nine – Great, More People to Avoid**

Ah, the boring life. How I've missed you.

Saturday passed without much of a hitch. Wakaro and Ren kept me company at the playground like they promised. We mostly talked about the most random stuff rather than me playing. Luckily, Wakaro didn't feel the impulse to show me anymore "cool jutsu." I think they needed a conversation where they could let themselves forget about Tenka for a moment and simply relax. It was something I needed to. A breather from contemplating the future of my life. After spending three hours with the two, a hawk wailing above us signaled that they had missions to attend to. With a hug for "good luck" to the both of them I let them go. The rest of my day was spent wandering around the village, eating a sandwich from a food stand, and reading history books in the public part of the village's archives.

I spent Sunday helping my mother gather herbs in the Konoha greenhouse and deliver medicine around the village, mostly to civilians which was beyond content about. The twins were spending some time at their new friends' house while again, Asahi was working overtime.

No Shisui. No Hokage. No random guy popping in my dreams. I've really missed you, Normal Life.

I was welcomed back to school by my teachers, glad I had gotten over a fever. At first, I was about to object that I didn't have a fever but quickly understood that these people were civilians and didn't understand the whole chakra spiel. Much like me. To keep everything understandable and easy, my parents must've called in that I was sick with a terrible fever.

A few days went by and it was once again the weekend.

I thought about that boy maybe once during the week. I didn't know his name so I referred to him as "Pretty Blue Eyes" in my head. He was an enigma. I was afraid to ask my parents about him since everyone seemed to hate him. Wakaro and Ren fixedly pressed "don't go near him" onto me as we walked to the playground after witnessing the incident. I couldn't help but ponder why. I came up with no plausible reasons that made sense. If he was sick with an incurable disease, he'd be quarantined. Actually that was the _only_ reason I could think of.

"Miyuna-chan, can you go to the Nara clan compound to pick up these herbs?" It was Saturday again. I was stuck working on all the classwork I missed while I stayed with my mother at the hospital. The homework wasn't hard per say, only tedious. And boring. Read a book, write a report, do some math problems, study for kanji test. The twins were with Asahi at his office as he was once again this weekend working overtime. It was evident that my parents were wary about leaving me alone for long periods of time. My independence seemed to have been revoked following last week's events.

"Sure, Kaa-chan." I gladly took the slip of paper my mother handed me. This was a good excuse to take a break from my homework.

The brightness of the outside stung my eyes when I stepped out of the hospital. I had been holed up in a small library in the hospital since early morning doing homework. No one disturbed me other than the occasional medical ninja entering to gather some books to study for a patient's surgery or injury. A curt greeting would be sent in my direction to which I would reply with the same curt greeting and they would be gone. I finished most of my homework but I could literally feel my brain frying away.

"Turn left at the Hokage's office and then continue straight until you see you the Hyuuga compound. Turn right at the intersection and keep walking until you see the Nara compound." I read the instructions my mother had written me on the back of the ingredients paper she gave me.

I froze at the mention of the Hokage's office. Nope, not going anywhere near that place.

And that was a terrible choice.

I assumed that if I kept track of all the turns I made then I would be fine. If I had turned left before the Hokage office then I should turn right to head in the correct direction again. Somehow the roads weren't exactly straight. There was a lot of curves and a lot were dead end alleyways. Good thing the Uchiha clan police had a good control over crime in the village. Otherwise I'd be panicking if I was lost in some shady alleyway.

I was absolutely lost.

Groaning, I trudged up to a random bystander and pulled on their sleeve to get their attention.

"Yes?" The man was kind and he was not wearing a shinobi headband. Major plus!

"Can you point me in the direction of the Nara compound?"

"Sorry, I'm not very good at keep track where all these big shinobi compounds are." He apologized, giving me a pat on the head.

Figures. Civilians probably didn't feel the need to memorize where shinobi clan establishments were. The only ones who would need to know were clan members and ninjas. Great, I was just beginning on such a good streak.

Did I want to retrace my steps and find the Hokage's office or did I want to approach a ninja and ask for directions?

Deciding that taking chances of going past the Hokage's office was the better choice, I retraced my steps back in the direction of the Hokage's office. This was easy considering most roads led to the red building and the building was a major landmark. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing for security reasons. But then again, ninjas were able to fly across rooftops so having roads that directly led to the heart of the village didn't make a difference. The roads were probably for civilians.

_Please don't let me run into the Hokage or Shisui._

I felt like an idiot scurrying past in front of the red building to increase my chances of avoiding the two people I didn't want to see. But desperate measures call for desperate actions. Usually guards would be posted outside the building but it seemed since it was the weekend, they were allowed to rest. Makes sense. Political discussions and treaty negotiations don't seem to be a fun way to spend the weekend. Ninjas needed breaks too. And good thing they weren't there to watch me run like an idiot.

Speaking of which, my father's building was right next to the Hokage's building along with my school and the ninja academy. Maybe I'll visit the twins and my father on my way back from the Nara Clan. He should be getting off of work around noon.

Safely making it past the "hot zone," I slowed back to a casual walk down the road I was supposed to be taking to the Nara Clan compound. I breathed out in relief. So far so good.

"You can't play ninja with us anymore!" A young high-pitched voice demanded. It was obviously coming from a kid my age considering the pitch and the context of his demand.

I was halted from my route to the Nara compound by a group of kids arguing in the middle of my path. They were all boys from the ninja academy, I deduced since I didn't know them from the civilian school. And civilian children rarely played ninja. We called it "tag" or "hide-and-seek."

"Why can't I?" A timid boy asked the 'leader' of the group of boys. He was on the chubby side for what I expected a ninja or an in-training-ninja to be. Two brown swirls were tattooed on his cheeks – those were probably his most notable features other than his plump body.

The boy who was obviously the 'leader' bully in this argument had two purple rectangular tattoos on his cheeks. It must be a clan marking kind of thing so everyone would know which clan they belonged to. A double edged sword, I thought. An enemy would know which clan you belonged to with one glance at your tattoos and then they would know your special clan techniques if you had any. On the other hand, it was an easy way to pinpoint your identity when you died.

Why was I thinking about that? I don't really care.

Now, should I try to walk around them or turn back around and try to find another road? I really didn't want the first choice but considering I already spent like twenty minutes trying to find a road around the Hokage's office, I didn't want to risk getting lost again and becoming more delayed in finishing my errand.

"Because whenever you play with us, we lose!" The 'leader' complained.

"You're way too slow." A friend of the 'leader' added.

Those words were well acquainted with me. I pouted to myself as I thought about all the times Tobari and Jomei refused to play with me because I was "way to slow." I hope they didn't treat any of their classmates like how the boys were currently treating the chubby kid.

"You know guys, without him the teams would be uneven." At least someone was sticking up for the poor kid though his tone was quite nonchalant. Not necessarily a bad thing. His approach was like applying water to a bonfire. This kid had a cool head and defending that boy was an admirable move.

Regardless, this didn't concern me; I turned to leave to find a path around this mess, choosing my second choice. There was no way I could pass through unnoticed. If I was an adult they'd probably shut up from their bullying and wait until I was out of sight. However, since I was their age there was a higher chance that they'd call out to me. Either they want me to play with them or they'll awkwardly stare at me as I walk around them.

"It'd be lame like if you played a game of shogi and one of the pieces was missing." Once again his tone is apathetic.

That's a nice analogy, I thought to myself. Their argument was still clear in my ear shot as I turned my back to the boys.

Shogi was a board game with a lot of strategy involved; each piece had its own powers and weaknesses. Basically it was about how one utilizes his pieces to ultimately take out the King which was how one would win the game. We had a Shogi set in our home, usually Asuma would attempt to sucker me into playing with him whenever he had to babysit me and the twins for a few hours. I was horrendously awful at that game – those were Asuma's actual words. He tried teaching me strategy to help. Let's say, it's a very slow working progress between Asuma and I and shogi.

"But if you have a piece that's totally useless, then it's the same thing."

"Yeah, what he said."

"It's our team, and we don't mind having one less person."

Ugh, I groaned to myself. Guess the argument wasn't over.

_Leave them alone. You can't always butt in._

Who was I trying to trick? I couldn't convince myself to leave them without a pang of guilt following me for the entire rest of the day. I flipped back around to stalk towards the group of boys. _Please don't let me regret this._

"Great ninja leaders are able to access the situation and make what seems to be a hindrance into a black horse on a mission. Guess you won't be a very good ninja in the future," I spoke, purposely creeping close to the 'leader's' ears just so I could make him jump.

Hiding my satisfaction as the boy jumped a few inches in the air, I continued smiling innocently as I got all of their attention. "And you shouldn't be so mean to your classmates, they might save your life one day out on the battlefield." I shrugged as I weaved in between the stunned group of boys to continue on my way to the Nara residence. I was totally making shit up, but boy did I sound smart. Couldn't even tell that I didn't go the ninja academy, I snickered internally.

Alright that was all I wanted to say. Hopefully now, they'll be nicer to that kid.

_Pit. Pat. Pit. Pat._

"Why are you two following me?" I had heard their feet pattering softly behind me ever since I left the scene. I had glanced back at them over my shoulder when I first heard their footsteps; it was the chubby and apathetic kid. After the trouble I went through, they didn't even want to play ninja with those boys? It wasn't like I could blame them. Honestly, I wanted tell them they shouldn't bother ever playing with those jerks again. However, I was way too involved already. If I continued talking with them they'd start asking questions that I didn't want to deal with.

"I'm not, I was planning on heading back to my house and it's in the same direction." Apathetic-kid stated; he had his hands interlaced behind his head as he stared upwards at the sky. Feeling compelled to see what he was looking at, I followed his line of sight.

_Clouds?_

Chubby didn't say anything. Instead, he walked past me, dejectedly staring at his feet while dragging them lethargically. He only stopped when he noticed a butterfly trapped in a spider web. Gently, he reached for the struggling butterfly and freed it from its future peril in becoming a spider's food.

I quirked an eyebrow at his actions. Never saw someone do that before.

Shrugging, I continued on my way to the Nara Clan while the other kid followed Chubby who had turned the other way while I turned left. I've seen weirder things in this world. Like Wakaro turning into a gigantic slimy snail. Urk, disgusting.

It didn't take long for the long road I was on to turn grassy and green with tall trees. I was approaching the east side of the village. Don't think I've been here often. I finally came in front of a large residence complex with "Nara" painted above the doors on a sign.

"What are you doing here?" It was the apathetic looking kid again, followed by a much happier looking Chubby. He emerged from another path which made me a tad grumpy, thinking that there was definitely a way to have avoided the argument earlier between the boys and still arrived at the Nara Clan. Nonetheless, I had chosen to stop the argument because I couldn't stand them bullying Chubby.

"I'm on an errand to pick up herbs for my mother from the Nara clan." I answered the boy who asked me.

"I'm Shikamaru of the Nara clan, I'll show you inside." He politely introduced himself. His words were really formal and I couldn't help but feel I was dealing with some kind of royalty or something. The words out his mouth were so proper, a huge alteration from the uninterested tone he had one sentence earlier.

"Miyuna Shimewari," courteously, I replied. I was tempted to introduce myself with his same syntax "Miyuna of the Shimewari clan." Nearly bursting out in laughter from the ridiculousness of that thought, I mentally slapped myself. I was pretty sure Shimewari was no clan. Even if it was, I wasn't even a ninja or a ninja-in-training. Therefore, no need for this silly ninja formality.

His house reminded me of Itachi's. The same "zen" garden with the rocks, koi fish pond, wooden porch, and tatami mats. Shikamaru made Chubby and I sit down on his wooden porch while he went to find his father for the list of herbs I needed for my mother.

"Thank you for earlier. My name is Chouji Akimichi by the way." Chubby timidly said to me while I kicked my legs back in forth, content in watching Shikamaru's bamboo water pipe contraption his family had set up in the garden. _Clink_. The bamboo pipe would hit the rock it sat on to empty its contents whenever the water that flowed inside reached maximum capacity. _Clink._

"It's no problem. But maybe next time you should consider standing up for yourself instead of letting someone do it for you." I spoke without looking at him.

Chouji grew quiet from my words.

I continued, "You can't always expect someone to come to your aid, because one day someone is going to need you to stand up for them."

Wow, who was I, giving all these wise-ass comments lately? Like I had a right to go on and say stuff like "protect your friends" when I was terrified of becoming a ninja. Being so hypocritical right now, I scolded myself. I sighed and secretly urged Shikamaru to return faster with his dad so I could be out of here.

I found relief when I both felt and heard feet pattering towards us. About time, I thought mockingly. I rose to my feet to greet Shikamaru and his dad who was literally an older version of him. The only notable variations other than age was the two scars that ran down his cheek and forehead. He was also wearing a deer skin vest which contributed massively to his already rough demeanor.

_Uhhhh, this is Shikamaru's dad?_

"You're the spitting image of Hirana-chan. We used to date back in the day until your father stole her from me." A smirk spread across his face which made him seem kind of wicked – did my mother go for the 'bad boys' type? Oh god, how did– Did my father also used to be a 'bad boy' or did my mother grow out of her faze? Was this guy still salty at my father?

"Here you go," he continued smirking at my dazed face. A bulgy brown paper bag was pressed into my arms when I didn't make any movement to take it from him. Blushing in embarrassment, I quickly bowed in thanks and ran out of the Nara compound.

"Bye and thanks!" I shouted over my shoulder.

_Never again._

**AN: Okay, I'm done with my filler chapters/interludes. I'm still contemplating a few things for my next chapter but you'll definitely be seeing a lot more action.**


	11. At The Start Of A Storm (PART 1)

**Chapter Ten – At The Start Of A Storm (PART 1)**

"Yuna-chan, can you take this medicine to the Hyuuga clan?" My mother approached me while I was glancing through a medical book on the floor.

_Oh no, not this again._

The twins were having a play-date with one of their classmates today and I was stuck with two choices. Either being alone in our house (with my parents' hired ANBU, so not really alone) or spending the afternoon with one of my parents while they worked. My father had been extremely busy the last couple of days so I decided not to bother him and instead become a hermit in the library reserves at the hospital where my mother worked.

"Isn't that a little too advanced for you?" Hirana shot me a disbelieving look when she saw the book I was reading. _Atlas of Spine and Peripheral Nerves._ I politely closed the book and placed it back on the shelf exactly where I got it from.

"I was looking at the pictures." I lied easily. It wasn't a complete lie. I could only understand half of what the book was talking about, but since I was so bored it was the only reading material I could find some interest in. It was also one of the only books with lots of colorful diagrams which made the information easier to digest. I had taken the book in the first place so I could learn which nerves I could hit if I was ever attacked which I hope would never happen. This was what I learned from my past two hours of "studying": hitting your "funny bone" hurt because of the ulnar nerve. Adding the chakra network part in, hitting the ulnar nerve correctly can temporarily stun chakra flow in that arm. Yep, so fundamentally the next time Tenzo decides to "fake-kidnap" me I gotta jab him in the elbow.

"Alright," she responded after a hesitant pause. "Here are the medicine and directions."

"Actually–" I was about to decline that I didn't want to deliver the medicine but a doctor burst into the room looking for my mother, something about a ninja being poisoned on a mission. My words fell on deaf-ears so I stopped and waited for them to finish their conversation.

Only when they finished, Kaa-chan gave me a quick peck on the cheek before anything could leave my mouth. "Sorry Miyuna-chan, thanks for always being so helpful. Here's some money, get yourself a treat on the way back and get your brothers a present. Their birthday is tomorrow, remember?"

I flailed my arms and exclaimed in an attempt to get her attention as she briskly left the room, "But I don't actually like going on these deliveries especially when I keep running into your old boyfriends!" She was unfortunately already long gone, way before I even started my sentence.

_Oh pooh. _It wasn't like I could just leave the medicine and not deliver it. Especially after the praise and money my mother gave me. (And what if this person really needed this medicine? They probably paid for it too). It's like she guilt tripped me and bribed me on purpose. _Oh well, better suck this up._

It turns out my mother was a specialist in herbalism which meant her main job was to make medicine for the sick and deliver them to the right patient – from elderlies to shinobi poisoned from missions. Hence, the trips she keeps making me go on whenever I'm with her. Her patients were treated in the hospital. Then, based on their symptoms, she would use the Nara clan's herbs to make medicine and have them delivered to the patient's home. I think she mostly makes me deliver the medicine because she knows I'm bored. She _does _have several genin teams who _are supposed _to take care of errands like these.

"Off I go," I groaned pitifully to myself. "Whoopee."

XXX

Um…

I was really trying not to stare, but this lady had no pupils. They were still a pretty lavender. _But no pupils. _Was she blind? I tried to rid of any confusion from my face in case she could actually see.

"Thank you," she smiled gently at me, taking the medicine from my arms. An awkward pause settled between us after she took the medicine. I was still staring intently at her eyes, I realized, and rushed to direct my focus elsewhere. "You must be wondering about my eyes."

I winced. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." I sheepishly admitted to her. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too offended if I kept being polite.

"It's alright, you must not have studied the Hyuuga clan at the ninja academy yet." Her smile never left her face. _Phew_, it looks like I wasn't in trouble. She stuck out a hand for me to take, inviting me to go with her for some tea. I declined at first, but then she insisted since I came all that way to deliver medicine. And, she added that she had freshly made mochi. I couldn't reject mochi. So, I shyly took her hand and let her lead me inside.

She kept telling me that I'd learn about the four noble clans at the ninja academy. I found out that the Hyuuga clan and Uchiha clan were both apart of this "four noble clans" thing. The other two was the Aburame and Akimichi clan. When she mentioned Akimichi I promptly thought of Chouji which came to surprise for me that he was so important. He seemed normal. Given anything, I thought "Shikamaru of the Nara clan" would be a part of a noble clan. He sure had the fancy syntax for it.

Now I just needed one more clan to complete this "four noble clans" organization sort of thing. I didn't hold any particular interest in completing the quad, it simply humored me that I met three out of the four noble clans. Here I was trying to avoid ninjas and it was most definitely not going well.

I obediently listened to her explanation instead of telling her that I did not go to the ninja academy. It was easier to just lead her to believe I was studying at the academy rather than going to _normal _civilian school. I've learned from my numerous past experiences that people were quite surprised about my choice to go to the civilian school, usually followed by numerous questions and a lengthy speech about why I should reconsider my choice.

Some of the things she told me about her clan went straight through one ear and out the other. I couldn't understand some of the terms she used so I disregarded it pretty quickly and only pretended to understand. Hopefully, she bought the act. She either did buy my act or she chose not to give any indications that she caught me listening to her only half-heartedly.

Something about a _kekkei genkai _made her eyes the way they are, the _Byakugan. _It was a power in the eyes that allowed them to see 360 degrees (without turning their heads apparently) and through most solid objects and obtrusions. Basically I got it was x-ray vision. And then my mind got into a very distant tangent about all the cons that would come with having x-ray vision all the time.

So…they could see through people's clothes? Imagine having to see everyone naked all the time, urk…someone has got to have a problem with that.

"–The Byakugan is not activated all the time, only when we send chakra into our eyes during battle." She continued explaining.

Well, that answered my tangent worry. And it saved them from seeing naked people all the time. But that means they'll still see their opponents naked when they activate their Byakugan, right? That was a sure way of getting rid of nervous butterflies in your stomach before a big battle.

"Natsu-san!" A little girl with the same pupil-less, lavender eyes came running around a corner of the house. She seemed to be around the age of my brothers with her babyish features and her height only reaching my waist.

"Hanabi-sama," the green haired lady smiled down at the little girl and swooped her up into her arms.

The honorific surprised me. '–sama' was only used on people like the Hokage or royalty. Thinking about it, I guess the four noble clans could be counted as royalty. Ugh…I wish I was reincarnated as a princess. Maybe then I would've been spared in having to become a ninja. Okay I mean, I was technically able to stay a civilian now as Miyuna Shimewari. But come on, why did I have be reincarnated here in this world?

Right, right. I needed to save the world.

Besides, if I was a princess I could be pampered 24/7.

The thoughts about _that man_ put an instantaneous damper on my mood. Everywhere I looked his words haunted me. It had been more than a week since my run-in with Shikamaru and Chouji. And, two weeks since I returned to my civilian school. Meaning, three weeks had passed since I had my nightmare. Nothing had happened yet but a sense of dread always came over me as I laid down at night for bed. Was it going to be tomorrow? Or never? The dread came from never knowing if that night was the last I'll ever see my family or hoping _that guy_ wouldn't visit my dreams again. I lost a lot of sleep over it and I know my parents noticed but chose not to say much other than a few words of "You know you can trust us, right?" I was really glad for their silent, respectful worry. I mean I wasn't happy that I made them worry at all, but they knew I wanted to be left alone and they respected it.

Maybe my dream was only a dream. Gah! I had no freaking way of knowing. It had to have been real. The creepy ol' geezer brought up my reincarnation. When were dreams ever this meticulous? Or was it my inner desire fabricating some excuse in my mind to stop me from going crazy at all the impossibilities of this world. Everything felt so real, especially the feeling of the cold water filling up my lungs, the burning in my lungs afterwards when the last of my air left my lungs.

At the bottom of all my messy thoughts, I had two distinct sides drawn out. Be a ninja or stay a civilian? My reasons were endless on both sides, but over the weeks I had etched in red the biggest contenders. _Be a ninja and kill. Or be a civilian and watch my family die. _No matter the decision, I was surrounded by death.

And at the bottom of my dark bottom, there was this question. Something that was the root of my troubles. _Did I care if my family died?_

That was what scared me. Terrified me into panic attacks. I know that I should love my family, but I was unsure if I did. I felt like I did, but do I really?

I tried playing psychological Q&amp;A with myself. Would I be sad if they were gone? _I don't know._ No feelings rose up. Nothing. It was just an emptiness in my heart. Was this an aftereffect of being reincarnated?

"Are you okay?"

Harshly, I was jolted out my thoughts.

Another "are you okay" was asked before I fully registered someone was talking to me. "Sorry, I'm fine." I rushed through my response. I knew Natsu didn't buy it from the serious look she shot me. However, I merely kept my fake-smile firm. A few seconds of staring and eventually she let out a sigh, seeing that I was not going to admit to anything.

_Would I miss my family if they died?_

My head was still fuzzy, kind of like I had emerged from a deep sleep. I was sluggish. The questions Hanabi threw at me went either unanswered or lukewarmly answered. I had been asked to wait with Hanabi and another Hyuuga, who I learned was Ko-san, while Natsu went to get tea. Ko had come and introduced himself, replacing Natsu momentarily so that she may go get us tea. Hanabi was "royalty," made sense that they couldn't leave her alone with a stranger.

_Where was my heart?_

It felt like there was a hole in my chest. I knew I had to feel, I knew how I had to feel, and yet nothing. It was like my memories of my before-life. I knew they were there but they weren't within my grasp. It frustrating. Everywhere I searched there was nothing; no memories, and now no _love_.

I was pulled from my thoughts again, this time by a slap to the stomach. It hadn't hurt, only made me flinch, but Ko-san immediately picked up the young girl to give her a scolding. "Hanabi-sama, you can't do that! Apologize to Miyuna-chan." She had apparently wanted my complete undivided attention. Something about her older sister being awesome and protecting the Hyuuga clan and how I should listen to her when she's talking about her sister.

"It's fine," I muttered distantly.

"Are you feeling alright? You've gotten quite pale." His warm palm slipped beneath my bangs to feel my forehead. His big lavender eyes were curved with concern. I think their big pupil-less eyes were growing on me. They were creepy at first, but they were all so unbelievably gentle and kind (except the princess Hanabi). And yet they were ninjas; I didn't overlook the shiny metal headbands both he and Natsu wore. It made sense that they were ninjas. X-ray vision plus 360 degrees field of vision were likely extremely helpful on the battle field.

With the exception of Kakashi and that guy with the 'x' on his chin, every ninja I met was kind. The Hokage had played a joke on me which was totally unexpected. Albeit, it was mean, but his presence emanated kindness and warmth and he was genuinely troubled at me being troubled. There was also my parents. They were never cold to me or my brothers, always smiling at us, trying to fulfill whatever need we had (except for buying endless amounts of toys for the twins). They even let me become a civilian because I was scared of being a ninja. Was I wrong to have judged ninjas so harshly?

_But, they've killed. How were they still so normal?_

"Your temperature feels fine. But, if you're feeling unwell I can take you home or you may rest in a guest room here for a while until you feel better."

I liked to think of myself as a polite person. I felt bad that Natsu had left to get me tea and I was leaving before she could return. Meekly, I gave him a response. "I'd like to go home, if that's okay. I'm sorry for the trouble. I suddenly don't feel well."

Something flickered across his face, likely it was concern. "Of course, I will escort home." Across the courtyard, Hanabi jumped into the arms of her sister by the looks of it. She was my age, with blueish short hair and the same kind lavender eyes. Our eyes met for a second and I saw ringed designs, like _that man's _eyes. I blinked and the patterns were gone. She had the same lavender eyes as her clan-mates.

How had my "good day" taken such a sharp turn onto the "bad day" side of the spectrum? Everything had been fine. I was delivering medicine for my mother. I met a cute girl, Hanabi, and her caretakers Ko and Natsu. How had things changed so quickly? _Why did things change so quickly?_ I'm not Miyuna. I had a life before this. I _know _I had another life. But–

Why can't I remember?

_Why can't I remember?_

Ko knelt down in front of me. His hands settled on my tightly clenched ones. "Miyuna-chan, are you okay?"

_**I created you to become my tool.**_

"No, I-I can't– _I want to go home_."

"Hey don't cry, I'm going to take you home right now. You'll be alright."

**AN: Yay chapter 10 is finished! Please leave a review; they're always encouraging to read! Thank you for all your support! I'm so happy that so many people enjoy this story!**

**This chapter may have felt a little abrupt but that's kind of the point. You know when something really bad happens to you (like something that totally flips your life upside down), you first go through a stage of denial, telling yourself that everything will work out. And you carry on with your life for a few days maybe even a few weeks feeling alright. But then you approach the realization that nothing is going to be alright and it kind of just comes on suddenly, this realization. And, you're panicking and you feel hopeless and you feel lost.**

**Yep, that's what Miyuna is feeling right now. She's basically having a mental breakdown. Everything is just so scattered and nothing is in control. One minute she's happy and then she hits this realization that she can't ever go home.**

**Also, Miyuna isn't a heartless person for "not loving her family." She's going through a stage of denial still. Somewhere deep inside she knows that she needs to accept what is going on around her – that she has indeed been reincarnated. But she is unconsciously unwilling to accept it even though she is able to outright say she accepted it because her heart and her brain have not agreed yet. Her brain has processed it. But her heart is not ready to forget and move on. She can't remember any specific detail pertaining to her first life only that she was happy and she was young when she died. So, she's essentially tricking herself into believing she doesn't care for her family because she can't let go of the fact that she died in her first-life and can't ever return. It's a coping mechanism. Your brain tries to comfort you in times of extreme grief/pain.**

**Annnndddd, in case you weren't able to read between the lines. The last part, Miyuna was talking about wanting to go home as in back to her first life. Ko responded thinking that she was referring to her home in the Naruto world. Last note, I promise. Ko and Natsu are actually characters in the Hyuuga clan for those who don't know.**

**Okay I lied this is the last thing. You've probably all stopped reading by now, but that's okay. It's nothing important I have to say…just a little sneak peak of Hanabi's importance in the distant future of my story. I have this idea that Hanabi becomes like this surrogate-younger sister for Miyuna since her parents aren't going to give her a younger sister. So, Miyuna always visits the Hyuuga clan to play with Hanabi because she knows she's always training really hard all the time. And then, Jomei goes with her one day and develops this crush on Hanabi. How cute would that be? Hahahaha~ And then Tobari gets left behind. ;)**


	12. At The Start Of A Storm (PART 2)

**AN: THANK YOU for all your lovely comments; they are all very encouraging and I enjoy reading them very much. I realize I'm writing a lot of "filler" chapters…and now I can understand why Masashi Kishimoto-san has so many filler episodes in his anime. They're so much fun to write!**

**To DarkDust27's question: Shhhhhh. You're spoiling my story. I'm just kidding. She'll probably be on Team 7, not exactly a huge surprise, but maybe I'll throw a curveball. (;**

**To sketchtheunicorn &amp; Blackenflames: Thank you for such nice compliments in the comment section! I'm really glad you like Miyuna's character…even though we all kind of feel bad for her. I want to keep her character as realistic as possible. Someone who honestly has the best interest out for those who are close to her (even though she doesn't think she has any at the moment). But at the same time, she is afraid and she has a lot of self-doubt. And obviously, a certain someone will help her with that. Heehee ~**

**Thanks again for all the support! I really didn't think anyone would like this story and you have all made me incredibly happy! I can't believe I have 90 follows and almost 60 favorites on this story.**

**Chapter Eleven – At The Start Of A Storm (PART 2)**

Everything had been fine until yesterday.

_Bad things will happen to your family whether you want it to or not. Decide if you want to protect them or watch them die like the coward you are now._

Was it real or just a dream?

I didn't sleep well. In fact, I hadn't slept at all since my parents came in to bid me good night. That was six hours ago. Every time, remembering my reincarnation filled me up with a choking, hopeless sensation. How was it possible to miss something when there was nothing: a longing for something that I could never reach? How was it that everything hurt so much, so much that I wanted to die again? What would happen if I died again? Another reincarnation? Would I never be able to rest in peace?

Lying awake, I tried to recall all my best memories here in this world – to engrave the memories in my heart so that the crevices may fill up with what was missing. But instead of birthdays, laughter, and happy times I kept remembering the words _that man_ had said.

Several times – drifting uneasily into sleep – I sat up suddenly in bed at the sound of _his_ voice speaking clearly in my head, remarks _he_ had said in my nightmare. _You died. _The words were as clear and crisp as if they were a neatly printed out passage in a book. And after that, only an expanse of thoughts followed the words, chest-clenching and painful. So terribly painful. I lost everything when I died, like I had fallen off a ship, sinking so deep into a dark abyss beyond any help: the disorientation of being in the wrong house, with the wrong family, in the wrong world, was wearing me down; I felt groggy and depressed, like a flower fighting a losing battle against the cold. So fragile. So hopeless. Over and over, I kept thinking _I've got to go home _and then, for the millionth time, _I can't. I can never go home._

After laying wide-eyed for several more moments, staring into nothingness, I retrieved the necklace hanging around my neck and held it in my fingers to feel the shape of the stone. When I first placed it around my neck that evening when my mother had given it to me, it was very heavy. Now, I've gotten bit used to the weight. If I closed my fingers around it, the gold chain got warm from the heat of my hand but the neatly carved blue stone stayed cool. Its weighty, austere quality; its gleaming detail under the sunlight, were strangely comforting. If I fixed my attention on it intensely enough, it had a strange power to send me in a drifting state and feather these waves of calmness through me. It was to protect me, my mother had explained; it was a gift from my grandfather to my mother and now to me. I hadn't known how it would keep me safe but I felt honored that she had given me such a treasure, a token from my grandfather. Keep it hidden, she had said, and she dropped the stone behind my shirt, its coolness sliding against my skin.

I pulled my sheets aside. My room was so dark that the difference between having my eyes closed or opened was indistinguishable. I climbed off my bed, shaking the heaviness away only to have it cling onto me again as soon as I stopped shaking. Barefoot, I padded to my door, opened it, and continued down the dark hallway just a few steps. My parents' room was at the end of the hallway.

A prickling feeling shot down my spine as I tip-toed down the hallway. For a moment, I thought there might be someone standing at the top of the stairs behind me. I didn't turn around; I was too scared to. I knew it was only paranoia, being scared of the dark, but the thought that ninjas could easily break into our house and slink around uninvited while remaining undetectable paralyzed my body. Someone could assassinate us easily in the dead of night. My breath hitched in the back of my throat, flinching at the thought of phantom fingers reaching around to cover my mouth so I couldn't scream, an invisible knife digging into my back. Perhaps, I was thinking irrationally. Surely, my parents being ninjas too, they could detect any unwanted guest and…_kill them._

I reached for my parents' doorknob with a new sense of urgency. It turned easily in my hands. My parents' room was much brighter than mine. Their curtains were drawn fully open and the full moon never looked more alone in the night sky. They were curled in the nooks of each other's body, like a puzzle snuggly fitted with its neighbor. For just a moment, I forgot my distress and quirked a smile at how cute they were.

I padded to my father's side. The house was so silent that the creaking of the wooden floors beneath my feet sounded like screams. I suppose it was actually a scream; the floorboards were screaming at my weight. Other than the creaky floorboards, my parents' light snores were the only other sounds in the entire house. They hadn't so much stirred from my gentle tip-toeing which made me frightened again. Perhaps they wouldn't know if someone was sneaking around in our house.

I stared at my father's back for a while, unsure as to why I had escaped into my parents' room in the first place. The moonlight from the window illuminated on a symbol printed on the back of his sleeping shirt. It was the first time I had ever seen the pattern. A simple horizontal line with a vertical dash in the middle and two curved lines on either side. I nearly reached out unconsciously to trace the pattern on my father's shirt curiously but then I realized doing so would wake him up so I pulled my hand back. I would have to memorize it and look it up later or perhaps ask him about it.

Something glistened, catching the corner of my eye and I twirled my head to see what it was. A _kunai _knife was placed neatly on the side table. Even though I wasn't in the ninja academy, being born in a family of ninjas meant that knowledge of ninjas was a common topic at the dinner table, especially with curious twins.

All at once the air became stale, the exact, suffocating feeling of drowning I was well accustomed with. With a deadly coldness spreading in the center of my chest, I reached out for the kunai. What if? _What if I took this pain away?_

Abruptly, a hand shot out to grab my wrist. I was squeezed hard first, almost unbearably painful, and then before I could let out a pained verbal response it loosened. "What are you doing?" My father's voice was quiet, in a whisper as to not wake my mother who hadn't stirred from my father's sudden movement. And yet, there was a sternness in his voice, a certain frightening seriousness. He wasn't asking. He was demanding for an answer. His roughness was something I was not well acquainted with and I shook under his pressure.

I watched his other hand reach over to the night stand with a nervous stare. For a moment I thought he might be picking up the kunai knife, but instead he pressed the off-button on his alarm clock just as it turned 4 o'clock. He returned his attention to me, never letting go of the firm grasp he had on my tiny wrist. His dark orbs seemed to glow despite the darkness that surrounded us. It glinted with an emotion I couldn't place.

"You know you're not supposed to touch dangerous weapons." He gave a sigh, releasing my wrist to rub the side of his face tiredly. "What are you doing out of bed at this hour?"

I released the uneasy breath I had been holding. My panic must have been written plainly on my face. But he must've misplaced it as being surprised as he didn't make any mention of it. Maybe I wouldn't have been quite so alarmed if I'd known he was awake. Or that he was asleep and could sense my movements in his sleep so easily. What was I going to do with that kunai knife anyways? I couldn't exactly remember. Everything was such a haze, as if I was covered by a slightly translucent silk fabric.

"I couldn't sleep." I muttered out my answer, hugging my wrist to my chest as soon as he released it. Relief coursed through me, thankful that I wasn't pressed further as to why I was grabbing for his kunai knife. My father was aloof after my reply. That or he was still half-asleep. He didn't meet my eyes which was a good and bad thing. I had become accustomed to his stares well enough to know they meant he wasn't letting something go until I explained myself or managed to run away from him. If he wasn't staring at me he was off in deep thought which wasn't good because that meant he was thinking about me which would then lead to him staring at me to silently torture me for me to explain myself.

"A nightmare? You obviously look very tired," he was staring at me now. Not good.

"Yeah, a nightmare." Though I knew I was telling the truth…half-truth, and he seemed to verify my statement as true, I still flinched. His tone wasn't accusatory at all, but rather soft and thoughtful as if he had spoken the words more to himself than to me. But still I had flinched. I could never tell if he actually ever believed me or he was using some secret interrogation technique that led one to believe you were safe; then all of sudden he would spring on you all these accusations where you'll be forced to tell him the truth because you simply reacted. It had happened numerous times.

When questioned about why my friends never liked to come to our house, I was forced to reveal that _Haru and Kiyoko_ didn't exist and that I had made them up to be my imaginary friends. That hadn't gone well. I was immediately forced to go to the park and make one friend. Which I kind of did. I pretended to really like this girl who was my age just so I could get her to tell my father we were now good friends. I was tempted to tell him I was friends with Shikaku-san's son to get out of the whole ordeal. Surely, my dad knew who that was since Shikamaru's father had mentioned how my mother was stolen from him by my father. I decided against doing so, perhaps there was still a feud going on between them. Besides, he would quickly figure out that Shikamaru and I weren't really friends and instead I avoided him like the plague actually. There had been numerous times where I saw Shikamaru and Chouji playing in the streets. They would give me a wave and I would I would simply wave back, then run away before they could approach me.

"I have to go to work," he pulled a corner of the sheets from underneath my still sleeping mother. She hadn't stirred at all, still lightly snoring away. Wearily, my father made a motion of indicating to get in with my mother.

"Can I come to work with you?"

"Can you come to work with me? At his ungodly hour?" His voice was louder this time, filled with disbelief, and he managed to get my mother to stir. She muttered a few incoherent words that I only managed to make out as "–trying...sleep" and she flipped around so her back to us.

"You're going at this ungodly hour?" I didn't mean to sound snippy, but I guess my attitude was stemming from my lack of sleep. I looked at my parents' bed again and at my mother's sleeping form, perhaps sleeping with her would help keep the nightmares away if I focused on her warmth and her chakra as I slept.

"That's because it's my work. How about you try to get enough sleep for the both of us. Come on, get in bed." He attempted to coax me again.

"But I can't sleep. I'll be good, I promise."

He gave an exasperated sigh, "Fine, only if you can be ready in fifteen minutes."

I nodded and padded as quietly and swiftly to get ready. Finishing in record time, I ran down the stairs to find my father already waiting at the door. He handed me a warm bun he must've heated up in the microwave while I was getting ready. Slowly I chewed on it as we exited our house and walked to my father's work place.

Outside, all the usual stands were closed. It was to be expected, it was only twenty past four in the morning. Some street lights were flickering on the main roads but for the most part the entire village was dark. In the afternoons when traffic was at its highest, the roads were always bustling with life; children skipping and cheering, adults talking amongst themselves, ninjas enjoying the _peace_ within the walls of the village.

Because I was cold and weary, not from pulling an all-nighter but from everything that has happened in my life (including death), I pressed myself a little closer to my father as we walked down the empty streets. His warmth and being close to his soft chakra was strangely comforting. We walked along in silence. My mind was whirring busily on what to do in this world as well as what I was going to do when I got to my father's office. I had simply wanted to be in his presence so that I wouldn't be alone with my troubles. It was nearly a split-second decision. I hadn't wanted to sleep, even though I was exhausted both physically and mentally. I was hardly paying attention where we were going when I realized he had paused in his step beside me. "Perhaps you should go back and sleep."

I shook my head up at him. Somehow I knew _that man_ was waiting in my dreams; if not him only some terrible nightmare mutated from my anxiety. Often – amidst my daily activities – I drifted in and out of sleep (from the lack of good quality sleep), and my dreams for the most part were muddied with the same indeterminate anxiety that bled through into my waking hours: ninjas, my parents and my younger brothers bleeding at my feet, and me being unable to save them. Thanks to my nerves being high with anxiety I had a lot of extremely vivid dreams, where I often found myself jolting out of bed out of breath and in cold sweats or having a panic attack in the middle of the street. Surprisingly, I didn't have another "releasing nearly all of my chakra and nearly dying because of it" episode. And my parents hadn't come rushing into my room to see what the matter was so that means I had stayed silent in my night-thrashings. As for having a panic attack in the middle of the street, it lasted very short once I realized I had been dreaming and I was able to calm myself down quickly before I made a big scene.

My father then lifted me up into his arms, pressed a rather wet kiss to my cheek, as if that was supposed to make me melt in his arms and act like a magic spell to make me fall asleep. "You're obviously very tired." He pointed out again my terrible looking state. Good thing it was the weekend. "Are you having nightmares about Tenka's death?"

"No," I stated simply, handing my half-eaten bun to him. Perhaps he would finish the other half instead of having me throw it away, wasting food. If I had been feeling any better I would've finished it in only a few bites.

"What's this? You can't finish your bun? It's your favorite, isn't it?"

"Not hungry."

Asahi adjusted me in his arms so that I was propped up against the side of his hip, then he grabbed the bun from my hands, finishing it quickly within a few bites. "Now I know something is wrong because you love taro buns. Won't you tell me what's wrong, Miyuna?"

I wanted to tell him everything, how much I was suffering from this looming threat over his life which I couldn't discern for sure if it was real or not and being engulfed with such misery that I couldn't see the light anymore. The stiffening, painful feeling of being forsaken in this world was unbearable. For being a body-snatcher. For taking away a daughter who would've made him so proud, going to the academy and becoming a ninja. I wanted to apologize for everything. I wanted to forget everything. And disappear. I wanted to go home. I wanted this to all end.

It's not fair. Why was I the one sent here? Why did I have to do _that man's _bidding? Why am I his tool?

_Why did I have to die? Why did it have to be me?_

"Miyuna? Why are you getting so upset?"

I twitched violently out of my thoughts – feeling terrified, flailing, and back in the arms of my father who was struggling to keep me from falling out of his arms. His unsettled dark eyes stared into my lighter ones, "Everything okay?"

I began to cry, or half-cry, ugly dry wheezes with my face pressed into his shoulder while Asahi patted my back and anxiously asked me what was wrong. Before this, I'd been feeling better, but somehow it was like being in the arms of Asahi made me ill and depressed all over again. He was so good to me. I just– I just… It wasn't fair. He loved me so unconditionally. And yet, I wasn't even his real daughter. On top of that he was going to _die._ Hirana and the twins too.

I was going to lose everything again. And I couldn't let that happen.

_I wouldn't let that happen again._

They were all I had left. I would sooner die than go through the pain of losing everything again.


	13. A Parent's Intermission

**Chapter Eleven and a Half – A Parent's Intermission (Asahi)**

"We need to talk."

I had been doing the dishes with my wife while our children played in the living room. Or at least I thought the three of them were playing together until our oldest child walked up behind us, suddenly proposing that we needed to talk. I made a choking sound in surprise. I tried to cover it up by coughing into my hand. I'm pretty sure no one bought it.

"Yuna-chan, you have the roles reversed. It's usually the parent that asks to talk." I chuckled lightly while I dried my wet hands on the apron I had around my waist. "But yes we can talk. Are we in trouble, Yuna-chan?" My last sentence was said in a teasing manner in hopes of cutting down the tension that was radiating from her.

Something has been terribly wrong with her since that incident at the gates. The terrible panic attack she had the night of the incident was the first start of our worries. We could only assume she had a terrible nightmare that led to releasing a huge amount of chakra in hopes of protecting herself from whatever was haunting her. She was unconscious for nearly a week after that from chakra depletion, missing school and having us constantly on edge. And then there was this morning's events. What was she planning with my kunai knife? Imagine my surprise being jolted out of sleep with a sudden unnerved feeling. At first in my sleepy-state I had mistaken her as an intruder but her small figure was a dead give-away.

"I want to become a ninja now." She spoke with a sound conviction.

Hirana and I looked at each other. Would she ever stop surprising us?

"Well, you're a little behind your peers and you'll need to work very hard to catch up. But if this is what you want, we can't stop you." Hirana was the first to speak up.

I had been eager about entering our daughter when she was younger but now I wasn't quite sure. I had been so desensitized to what ninjas faced that I had chosen the path for her – a dangerous path – all those years ago without a hesitation. But now, after everything that's occurred since Tenka's death I wasn't sure if I wanted any of my children to witness anything remotely related to the ninja lifestyle. To what I faced when I was their age.

A sudden jab in between the spaces of my ribs sent me bending over in pain. In between my moans of pain I managed to mutter out that I would take her to register tomorrow at the ninja academy. After I recovered and Miyuna had left the room, I gave a light glare at my wife for jabbing me in the ribs.

"You weren't responding and she was looking for your approval. You were about to say no, weren't you?" Hirana waved off my glare and returned to finishing the last bowl in the sink.

"Yes, but it's just because I worry about her." I sighed also returning to help her dry the last bowl and stowing it away in the cupboards. "Why are you okay with this?"

"You heard the conviction in her voice. As her parents, we should allow her to do what she believes in. Besides, it was not that long ago that we both wanted her to be ninjas so who are we to reject her when she wants to become one now?"

Another sigh left my lips again – something that I had been doing way too much. I feel like I get a new wrinkle every time I worry about Miyuna.

What made our daughter change so much?

XXX

I didn't want my daughter to become a ninja because I was worried about so many things. But I had to admit that watching her struggle to lace her fingers together for the twelve basic ninja hand signs was extremely amusing. I was lucky I could hide my grins behind my stacks of paperwork.

The twins were with their mother and I had the pleasure of having my daughter in my office. She was a lot quieter than the twins so I could actually get some work done. However, it seemed today was not the case with her constant groans of frustration and me silently snickering at her antics.

Ah~ I shouldn't be laughing at my daughter when she's working so hard. A stab of guilt went through my heart and I hung my head in self-disappointment.

It had been one week since she entered the academy. It somehow worked out that she was placed in the same class as her two brothers. At times I could see her frustration at being shoved in a class with kids so much younger than her but it served as really good motivation to make her work even harder so that she could move to a class where the students were closer to her in age. I snuck a pained looked at her own stack of paper and books filled with the material she needed to catch up to just the level her brothers were on. Well I guess it would mean she wouldn't be out doing missions anytime soon so it gave me a temporary piece of mind.

"Tou-chan, I'm going to return these books back to the library."

"You're done?" I stared at her in surprise. She was ready to leave the room with that huge stack of books in her arm.

"Yeah, the only thing I struggled with was the ninja hand signs. I learned everything else in civilian school." She blinked at me as if to ask _haven't you been paying attention to the homework I've asked you to check?_

"Oh, so you're caught up already?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

She is a genius for the most part when it comes to school. Maybe she would graduate sooner than I think. Urk. That wasn't a very good thought.

"See you at home, Tou-chan."

I hung my head and muttered out, "Okay."

XXX

**AN: Am I making progress? I took a really nice long break…because I got stuck in writer's block more like I got stuck in cement. :)**

**CELEBRATION FOR OVER 100 STORY ALERTS! WOOHOO! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!**

**BONUS: #1**

It was an ordinary day; I had gotten out of civilian school and was now strolling around the village aimlessly. My brothers were off playing games with their new friends at the ninja academy and I was all alone. Again. Maybe I should _try_ making some friends? But the kids in my class were so annoyingly obnoxious. I gave a sigh at my predicament.

"You sound like you're having a mid-life crisis, and I'm pretty sure you're far too young for that." A deep chuckle caused me to twitch violently at the suddenness.

"Sorry, I didn't meant to scare you." Whoever it was apologized quickly. "Forgot you can't sense me like the other kids can."

The last part was quieter, probably because it was not intended for me to hear.

It was Inoichi-san, a colleague of my father who my siblings and I often encountered. He was the "nice guy" who always snuck us in afterschool to go see our father as opposed to the meanie Ibiki-san who always yelled at us that their workplace was not a playground. After the first few visits to the office, we learned his name – Uncle Inoichi-san, the twins called him while I just stuck to plain Inoichi-san though he often urges me to call him uncle like the twins. He has a daughter of his own, the same age as me, but I always shot down his invitations to go play with her.

He had an armful of bouquets in his arms, so much that he was struggling to keep them away from covering his face. He was out of his usual work attire and instead wore more casual clothing with a floral apron on top. It was probably his day off from work, but it honestly didn't look like he was relaxing.

"Do you need some help?" I offered after he seemed like he was really struggling.

XXX

I hadn't envisioned spending the rest of my afternoon helping around the Yamanaka Flower Shop. But that's what happened.

"Thank you for all your help, Miyuna-chan. I usually have Ino around to help but she started her supplementary kunoichi lessons a week ago so she's been staying afterschool later nowadays." I was currently seated on a chair Inoichi had pulled up for me while sipping some tea. We had spent hours organizing and sweeping away dead flower petals. The shop was now sparkling clean and I was rather proud of the good job we did.

"Well it's getting late now, and I should let you go home." I watched curiously as he grabbed a large bouquet of hibiscus and handed the bundle to me. "Can you give these to your mother for me?"

"Did you date my mother too like Nara-san?" I looked at him with a skeptical eye now.

A cough erupted from Inoichi's throat, no doubt from choking in surprise. He grew flustered, and he quickly brought his palm across his cheeks in effort to hide the redness. "No, that's not it. She just– She makes this lovely hibiscus tea!"

"Sure," I replied with a disdainful tone and left him to his spluttering mess as I hopped down from my seat and walked out of the shop with the bouquet anyways.


End file.
